How to write a Strike Witches Fanfic
by Bucue
Summary: If you have ever wondered how to write a Strike Witches Fanfic but was unsure how to start writing one, or have been writing for Strike Witches and need pointers in how to improve your story then I welcome and offer to you to this helpful guide. From the Author of Witches Rangers and the 141 comes a written, digital tome of knowledge in how to Write a good strike Witches Fanfic.
1. Chapter 1: Research

**When it comes to the art of writing there are some who find the allure of authorship to be appealing: to craft a world and characters to tell a story for those living in the world around you. As an author myself it is a craft that I take pride and joy in. It's a hallowed act that gives me happiness and fulfillment in both in following through on the creative process and also see the impact it has on people. And while there are a great many impactful anime out there, one of the most impactful anime in my mind is Strike Witches: no other anime has had me feel so invested, so passionate, or even I dare say obsessed with it as Strike Witches has. However, there are both new and inexperienced authors who have approached me and asked how they could best craft a good fanfic story featuring Strike Witches.**

**And as far as fanfics for a series go, Strike Witches fanfiction is a series that has many authors I have seen and have been approached by who struggle or are unsure of how to best write of a narrative involving this unique, original and amazing series. To be quite frank, quite a number of Strike Witches fics fall flat over time or are complete failures at launch. With that in mind I have decided to craft this guide in how fanfiction writers can best craft a Strike Witches fanfic. Having written stories for over seven years, I humbly offer my knowledge to my peers so they too can learn the tools and rules and develop the skills and qualities to craft a good Strike Witches Fic.**

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Chapter 1: Research

Before an author does anything; before they bring up their word document and start typing errantly about whatever series they enjoy, they must first acquaint themselves with some of the important, basic rules of writing. The first rule that any writer worth his salt must know is Research: a good writer must always research the subject and material they are going to write about. Any story to be written must be properly researched so as events and scenarios depicted are accurate and realistic to the subject and genre being written in, and that is quadrupley true for war stories.

War stories feature the age old tail of conflict of arms: standing armies trading blows on the battlefield. It is a story filled with drama, action, suspense, nightmares, heartache, terror, horror, courage, honor, duty, barbarity, and often questions the morality of warriors in battle and even the act of warfare itself. It's a subject that is demanding of respect due to the scale, scope and subject matter. For an author writing a war story it is required that they research everything regarding military life and warfare. Everything from military history, strategy, tactics, military law, military culture, weapons of war, wars impact on the psychology of soldiers; everything. All things regarding military life and warfare must be researched. Readers of military stories have very critical eyes for detail and look for researched stories that are able to maintain a sense of immersion.

You must show that you as a writer know what you are talking about in your story otherwise you will find that your target audience will find glaring errors that will make things difficult for the readers to stay invested in the story. You can't have surface fired anti-tank rockets easily taking down aircraft, you cant have a A-10 Thunderbolt dog fighting with an F15, nor can you have an early twenty-something year old admiral leading an entire carrier fleet after spending two years in the navy. Stuff like this is egregiously unrealistic, breaks any sense of immersion for the readers and shows that the writer has done no research into the stories subject, and can also be construed as they didn't care enough about either the subject nor the story to do said research.

Strike Witches is ultimately at its core a war story. And seeing as it's a war story that is set during the timeframe of the Second World War, all matters regarding WW2 are to be researched, from the formation of troops, tanks, ships and aircraft, the weapons fielded and their abilities, Second World war tactics and strategy, slang and vernacular used during the time period, the trends of the time and everything regarding life during the late 1930's to the entirety of the 1940's.

But research for a Strike Witches story doesn't stop there...

You must of course also research the Cannon material of the series that you intend to write about itself. If you want to write a true Strike Witches fic: you must research every facet of strike witches source material. And not simply what we see of the Anime or movie either: there are doujinshi, light novels, expanded materials and other such resources that come directly from the creator and author Humikane Shimada or material that has been endorsed as cannon by Humikane Shimada himself: such cases of the latter include examples of Tiger in the Desert, Witch in Africa, Witches of the Sphinx, One Wing Witches, Witch of Capuzzo, Witches of Andorra and other such stories.

While each of these will be addressed in future chapters in greater detail, other important things to research are witches, striker units, magic, Neuroi, the Strike Witches World, the culture of the world and what the nature of Human on Neuroi warfare entails and is like. Again, the best thing that you as a writer can do is Research EVERYTHING. It may take time researching everything required to write a Strike Witches Fic, but it is to be seen as an investment. Investing the time and effort to research the source material and historical references will greatly enhance and improve your stories by leaps and bounds.

I go out of my way to research and cross reference information regarding warfare and Strike Witches from multiple sources in order to craft an entertaining and realistic experience... or at least as realistic as Magical girls with magi-tech on their legs and no pants carrying big guns to fight laser shooting, regenerating machine aliens during the 1940's can be. If I didn't take time to research everything required for the subjects that I write my stories would not nearly be as good. As a writer it is my responsibility to research what I am going to write, as is the responsibility of any writer really.

And for a war story the responsibility is the greatest: although I write about factious characters in a war setting; real people and real soldiers have died in real wars, and I feel like I owe it to them that when I write about a war story that I treat and handle the subject with humility and respect. To not do the research of military life and of warfare shows apathy for the lives of those who had to live though, participate in or experience in general; warfare and battles in combat zones, as well as being disrespectful of those who lost their lives during times of war.

And on top of that, I also has a responsibility as a Fan of Strike Witches that I research the series at length and in depth. I love and respect the series so much that I want to ensure that I don't end up hurting, derailing, defiling and disrespecting the series, characters and world that I so love with a passion. Thusly, I spend a great deal of time researching everything before write If there is something I don't know of: I research it. If do know something, I look back at references to refresh and confirm that my information is correct and up to date, maybe even expand upon what I already know.

As authors we must research, research, _always _research; to ensure that everything is grounded in accurate fact and realistically depicted. If we don't we have to work with a weak starting story that will grow brittle and crack, if not outright break overtime. The Paradox Timeline is one such example of what happens when someone doesn't do research: American, British, French Japanese and Russian ships all amassed to participate in a training exercise even despite this being extremely unlikely if not impossible for reasons of logistics and global, geo-political issues, Air force aircraft launched off of Navy Carriers when it should be Navel aviation aircraft launching from said craft, a single supply ship supposedly supplying munitions for several dozen ships, originating from various nations and all with differing types of munitions and fuel types, not to mention use of clear costly Hollywood tactics. The fact that 50,000 men and witches are KIA, Armored loss at around 10,000, and half of the air force wings destroyed... and it's declared a crushing victory when in actually would be a resounding, catastrophic defeat that would be almost impossible to recover from. In reality these examples show a lack of attention to detail of events, logistics, military structure, strategy, ect. Also the fact the protagonist's history towards his first love interest has quite a few issues involving military laws regarding relationships in the military but also the fact that the woman he loved was tortured, raped, machine-gunned to death and her corpse left to rot in his cell for months and somehow he shows little to no emotion or crippling psychological damage as a result is also unrealistic, showing a lack of research in both military protocol and the psychology of soldiers and warfare and on the subject of PTSD.

Understand when I site this story and the examples therein it is not to "flame" or "bash on" but simply to educate and cite as an example to avoid emulating. Because the authors research in this story is questionable if not outright non-existent, it shows how little care and thought was put into the story, which I hope gets better for both said author and my peers in the Strike Witches Fanfics. There are other examples that suffer from lack of research but The Paradox Timeline is a rather well known example of such a hang up.

Ultimately what I'm trying to say is that for any story a writer intends to craft: the first and most important thing to do is to conduct as much research and homework as possible. In this day and age of information and the convenience of technology has made it easier for us to educate ourselves in all manner of subjects, so there is no excuse at all for any writer to not conduct any researching sessions for their stories.

Lack of research hurts and can evil kill stories. To strengthen and enhance stories AND help build strong foundations: research the subject matter, the genre and the source material. I can assure you that anytime spent researching will not be time wasted. See research sessions as an investment that will provide great returns... with interest. and in war story's; researching the subject and genre is pretty much required, if not mandatory. Because in a subject as serous and much-fasciated as war, it must be carefully studied. And for a Strike Witches fic this still holds true: the Strike Witches wiki is one great place to find the information you need to better conduct research into the Strike Witches Characters, world and the series in general.

Take heed of this passage for Sun Tzu's the Art of War as a bit of sound advice on the topic of Research: "If you know the enemy and know thyself: you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know thyself, but not the enemy; for every victory gained, you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy of thyself: you will succumb in every battle."

So take heed my fellow writers: Always do Research. It will help you and your stories in the long run, it will make your stories more engaging and believable and your readers will notice and appreciate the time, care and effort you put into the large and small details. You have access to libraries, books, television and the internet as reservoirs of comprehensive compendiums of knowledge. They will be indispensable tools in your arsenal as a writer. And if you can get information from first hand sources then that's even better. A writer has an obligation to know that he/she is writing about, so be sure to take that responsibility to stay well informed and educated.

Do Research for your story: it's the best favour you can do for your audience, your story, your characters, your favorite series and more importantly: for yourself.

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**And so ends the first chapter of the guide. This will be a bit of a project, so I'll be taking a partial hiatus on some of my writing projects to work on this guide since I'm often approached by people asking for help.**

**Their will be Twenty chapters total that will go into detail of specific subjects. I have provided a chapter list below so everyone knows how many chapters this will be and what topics will be covered in the guide. I hope this helps everyone. Thanks so much for the support and as always; stay frosty.**

**Chapter List:**

**Chapter 1: Research **

**Chapter 2: Rules of Good Writing**

**Chapter 3: Writer Mindset**

**Chapter 4: The Witches**

**Chapter 5: Magic, Magical Science, and Physics**

**Chapter 6: Striker Technology**

**Chapter 7: ****The Neuroi**

**Chapter 8: ****The World Part 1: History**

**Chapter 9: ****The World Part 2: Geography**

**Chapter 10: ****The World Part 3: Culture , Politics and Society**

**Chapter 11: Mundane Forces Part 1: 1940's Era**

**Chapter 12: Mundane Forces Part 2: Modern Era**

**Chapter 13: Crafting Original Characters (OC's) Part 1: OC Witches, Soldiers and Civilians**

**Chapter 14: Crafting Original Characters (OC's) Part 2: How to avoid the dangers of Gary Stu's and Mary Sue's**

**Chapter 15: Plot**

**Chapter 16: Heterosexual Relationships**

**Chapter 17: Homosexual/Lesbian Relationships**

**Chapter 18: Loli Witches and characters that romance them.**

**Chapter 19: Stressors in combat, PTSD and Soldiers heart.**

**Chapter 20: Writing Strike Witches Crossovers**


	2. Chapter 2: Rules of Good Writing

Chapter 2: Rules of Good Writing

When it comes to writing in either Strike Witches Fanfics or any story for that matter; there are a few important rules to carrying out the hallowed art of the written word that a writer must keep in mind. Such rules are common sense and vital if you intend to craft an engaging, well written, well paced story. In this chapter I will be covering several important rules and common sense tips and pointers that will greatly benefit you and your story.

One of the big rules to good writing that I hear from experienced and even professional, published authors, is that you have one paragraph to do whatever you want (if you pardon the expression), so make sure you say something that can draw your readers in, so make sure to make it count. What that saying means is: make sure you start your story off with a strong, engaging, captivating first paragraph that demands your readers attention. Although in fanfics that if you want to stay true to the story you have to stay aware of the series, the verse and the characters if you intend to craft a good story, but even with these elements in play and working with what you've got, make sure you do so in as strong a manner as possible. The moment you capture the audience's attention by the first paragraph you will have their undivided attention, so start out strong, come out original (or as original as you can be), and as always be creative to get the reader hooked from the outset. Weak starts to your story won't be keeping your readers attention long if at all, so make sure you open up with a way to grab their attention from that first paragraph. Do that and you'll have their attention, at that point you keep them interested and entertained with your story.

Another of the rules to writing a good story is that you must always take time to proof-read and spell-check your story. This is kind of a basic one but is still important regardless: good spelling, grammar, sentence structure and overall mechanics will vastly strengthen your story by leaps and bounds. Spell check often, find others who have more experience in beta reading to provide feedback, editing and overall ironing out the details and it will more often than not keep your story from being weighed down and weakened. It will be hard for your audience to read through clunky dialogue, an ocean of miss-spellings and dodgy story mechanics.

Making sure to keep a story well paced is also of importance. A story's narrative shouldn't be too short and fast, but neither should it be too long and ponderous. Too short and fast and you'll have a story with little to no build up, little if any development and little to no opportunities for the readers to absorb anything substantial; which will make the readers loose interest. Too long and ponderous and you will wind up bogging down the narrative, slowing down events a bit too much to the point of tedium and could sometimes (if written poorly enough) would leave the readers feeling bored or unable to follow for very long and may end up putting focus too much on one character to the detriment of the others if it's a story where POV shifts between the cast. Note that there is a major difference between writing a long chapter and writing a slow dragging, bogged down narrative. The key is to find and maintain balance. It will take some time to figure out, but once you do you'll find your writing will become easier, more fulfilling and less overwhelming.

I'll be first to admit I have fallen victim to long dragging narrative in my story's but it is something that thankfully I have learned from. And that is another big part of good writing: always seek to adapt, grow, change and learn as a writer. Learn new ways to write; always seek to improve and hone your skills, learn new things, become intimate with understanding your characters, learn the nuance of the narrative of your story. Look at examples of movies, anime, books, tv shows, and video games with story's and pay attention to details, the pacing and the narrative within these mediums and find examples that are good; find out and what makes them good so that you can use the tropes being utilized to enhance yourself, and be sure to watch for the bad as well; discover what the problems are, identify those problems, and seek to avoid and mitigate them in yourself and your story. The worst thing you can do as a writer is staying stagnant. The author, characters, plot and narrative should grow together. If none of them are growing; then you're doing something wrong.

When you start a story that you intend to see till the end for a long fic or even a series, make sure you start with an end goal in mind. Where do you plan on going in your story and what do you hope to accomplish? If you intend to have some sort of message at the end, what sort of message are you trying to send the reader? What happens along the way can be thought out, it can happen spontaneously, it can even bounce back and forth between the two, but always make sure you know where the plot is going to go so that you don't end up wandering aimlessly in a foggy quagmire.

One thing to be made aware is that in any sort of literary work; it is that _meaningful _conflict is the heart of good drama. Any conflict that is created for the sake of conflicts sake is usually not a good idea: within literature there must be a reason mechanically and narratively speaking that pushes the plot forward. Unless it does then all you do is weigh the plot down with a clunky and pointless attempt at fabricated drama that does nothing to progress the story. The conflict must have a reason for being there, wither it be to ramp up reasonable tension, to establish a character or group's motives and alignment, to provide motivation for the cast, show a moment of introspection for the characters, ect. Two best friends starting a fight over wither the dodgers or the browns are good sports teams, trading blows and then never speaking to each other again is no way to provide meaningful drama for your story.

Something else to be aware of is that sometimes you must ground yourself in reality, be objective and sometimes that even means dropping certain plot elements and story paths if they weaken the story, derail the narrative, make little sense or just have no real place in the story. Ask yourself: how does this advance the plot? What do I set out to accomplish? Does this provide _meaningful _conflict to my story? Will this derail my characters or narrative? Where can I put this and how does this fit with both what I have and were I intend to go? Will me adding this weaken the plot? If an idea you have feels like it might not work, makes little to no sense, or overall provides nothing that adds to the story or drive the narrative forward, then it would be best to either re-write it or scrap it altogether. This may be difficult sometimes, especially if it's something you thought long and hard on and might even like a little bit, but sometimes a good writer knows what to leave in and what to send to the cutting room floor. Because if it seems like something might be a bad idea: nine times out of ten it probably is.

Another thing is that characters that are written into the story have to have a purpose for existing in the narrative, they must have some role to play, a position to fill. They have to give something to the story otherwise, why would you write them? A character that serves no purpose in any way shape of form is just an extra useless body on stage and more unneeded effort to write. Avoid creating or adding new characters if you're not sure what is accomplished by adding them to the narrative. Charicters should have a role to play, they shouldn't just "be there" for the sake of being there. Think things out before adding them.

Conversely be equally as carful when deciding to engage in the act of killing off characters. I'm not saying not to (even though I find the idea, act and experience of death involving a canon Witches from the strike witches series with to be utterly soul killing, not to mention that it would end up drastically shifting the tone of a Strike Witches fic by leaps and bounds); I'm simply saying think long and hard _who_ to kill, _when_ you kill them,_ how_ to kill them and wither you really _should _kill them. While character death _can_ provide a measure of drama, suspense and even indicate a changing of either genre, tone or simply increase the grave sense danger and give an element of tragedy; it isn't something to take lightly. Characters are a source of narrative potential, they provide opportunity for new events, interaction, plotlines and development of new, interesting ideas. The death of a character signifies the death of potential, a death of future ideas and opportunities. Just like you shouldn't add characters if they don't add something to the story, you should be careful when it comes to axe off characters that you don't kill characters off or weather you shouldn't at certain places, ways or even at all in cases for similar reasons as well as if you don't want to close a door at having more potential in these characters being explored, or if the death serves no point in the story other than for a cheap shot at shock value. I have heard of a couple cases of writers who have killed off particular characters and have regretted doing so, wither at all or simply at certain points that they felt were far to soon to kill the character in question. Treat character death as a solemn event. For either adding or killing characters: take your time, use good judgement, think long and hard and, in order to segway into my next talking point... and I realize this may sound like a weird, alien sounding statement but: ask the characters what they want.

Yes, you heard right: ask the characters what they want; let them tell you what to do. I'll explain what this means and what I'm talking about in a moment but first I must lay something out real quick.

This is a pretty big one for a story and especially for a fanfic , but the important thing to remember is that in order to write better stories in fanfiction that to start; the characters must not be seen as puppets to dance on strings or as slaves to have jump at your beck and call, or as a vehicle and stand in for you and the audience to live vicariously through or as rewards for some Charicter/OC/Gary Stu/ect to covet: they are people with their own thoughts, hopes, dreams, desires, strengths, weakness, virtues, vices and psychology. So allow them freedom and agency to act in ways that are natural to them. Whatever sort of event that they experience, that they can be allowed to grow, but it must be in a way that adheres to their overall character personality. The question a writer must ask isn't so much how "the writer " would act, but more of how the characters cannon-selves would act if placed in a particular situation.

Ignoring this will render flat, shallow dolls wearing masks of the readers favorite characters. By extension the world and canon isn't there to be defiled by the fanfic writer, but to explore and expand. Can there be new elements or developments to the verse? Of course there can: but it must be developments that make sense within the context of the verse. Likewise, any sort of character growth must also make sense to the character experiencing that growth, based on their personality and overall character.

Going back to my statement of Letting the characters tell you what to do it is an abstract concept but it is one that I embrace whole heartedly and those who adhere to this mantra of not telling characters what to do but letting the character tell them what to write is the mark of an exceptional writer. Some say that the author has ultimate sway, dominion, authority and control of a story. To some small degree this is true. But at some point this stops being the case all that much... and it then becomes a case of where _ the characters_ have ultimate sway, dominion, authority and control of a story.

The reigns of control must belong in the hands of the characters; it is a difficult skill to learn or develop, for some it is a gift that is uncommon to possess inherently and most fanfic writers will fail to grasp the concept but it is one that I can explain: The narrative has to have a logical and natural flow to it. And the characters must be given agency to act on their own free will: they are not the writers slaves to snap to the writers beck and call. The writers job is simply to scribe and chronicle events that are taking place. Good writing is cultivated and therefore good stories are crafted when this aspect is kept in mind. A good story is crafted when, and this is going back to the mantra again; the writer doesn't tell the characters what to do, but instead when the characters tell the writer what to write. The writer can pitch ideas to the characters for scenarios and vague plotlines but they cannot be forced. In addition, even if the character does accept a suggestion from the writer, they must be allowed to act with their own personal initiative and freewill in mind, do not tell the characters how to act, what to think or what to feel. Allow them to stay true to themselves and act and grow in a way that is natural for them.

Also avoid forcing plots, characters and narrative; let it flow naturally through you like water. And let the characters tell you what to write, don't tell them what to do. Just step back and let them go about their lives in the world and see what they can do. Adhering to these guidelines will allow the story to blossom like a flower.

If you do not do this then your characters, narrative, verse and ultimately story will suffer catastrophic damage and be counted amongst the 90% of dreck that litters the internet and be forever held as an example of the garbage that damages and violates the craft of the written word and would be considered an affront and insult to the art of literature in general. In laymen's terms: it will be just another shitty, unmoving, unreadable story amongst a hundred thousand if not millions of shitty unmoving, unreadable story's that have no damn business existing in the first place. Nothing more than an annoying distraction. Good writing moves and changes people. Bad writing is like a car alarm that has been blaring for over a half hour and grating on both your nerves and sanity.

Finally, as was briefly touched on above. The story, characters, narrative and world should have a natural flow. Things shouldn't be forced; a writer who forces characters and narrative and plot elements ends up hurting the characters, the narrative and ultimately themselves. At the same time, there should also be structure, be sure to follow a logical, rational progression and coherence. Use the tropes as tools and guidelines to help you study and become familiar with story elements. Also be sure to take some time to have a break once in a while. If you find yourself suffering from writers block, taking a break for a while may help you get those creative juices flowing again; it's rare for people to power though a writer's block by just bunkering down and trying to focus heavily, sometimes you just need to take the pressure off and approach things from a calmer, relax state of mind. Step back from the computer and read a book, watch a video, play a video game, take a nap, meditate for a few minutes, talk with some friends, grab a bite to eat, do a few jumping jacks, listen to some soothing music or music you really like, whatever it is you do to relax; do it. Then once you've done that for a while, come back swinging. Sometimes you gotta take time to sharpen the saw before you try and cut down the tree.


	3. Chapter 3: Writer Mindset

Chapter 3: Writer Mindset

This chapter will be somewhat short but it will contain a few subjects that relate to what sort of mindset a writer must take when they set about writing a Strike Witches fanfic. A writers paradigm going into writing a Strike Witches fic can be a factor into wither the story succeeds or fails.

For a Strike Witches Fanfic, or any fanfic really, a writer has to come for a place of love towards the series they are writing about. It's vital that writers who are fans of the Strike Witches series love and care about the characters, the verse, the story, ect and thanks to this love they seek to try and learn everything about Strike Witches as much as possible, as well as crafting their fanfics with carful, painstaking detail and undivided attention. Doing this will render better quality stories and show how much work and effort is being put into the piece. A fanfic should be a love letter to the series that you're a fan of.

Coming from a place of hatred for a series is the worst thing you can do as a writer. Writers who write hate fics often times make no attempt to pay attention to detail to the characters, the world or anything else about the series; because they don't care. They won't write with much care, detail or as well since they don't care for, if not outright hate the series. I know some people might find some hate fics to be funny, but frankly, for the most part; hate fics are a waste of the readers and writers time, and are ultimately not only distractions but outright venom that ends up contributing nothing constructive to the net or to humanity.

People write Fanfiction because they love the series: why waste time and effort writing about something you hate?

And by coming from a place of love, it has to be loving the series for what it is, not what you want it to be: strike witches is a magical girl, WW2, military slice of life, Yuri series. It's not a ecchi, fanservicey harem anime that is in need of a male lead to steal the spot light, because that is NOT what strike witches is.

Another thing about writing a Strike Witches fanfic is a pretty big state of mind that most people I have seen get wrong a lot in fanfics, but especially in Strike Witches fics. The absolute worst thing to wreak a story at conception, before it even leaves the starting gate, is a writer taking the mindset of trying to "Improve the series." As a writer I urge my peers from the bottom of my heart to NOT THINK THIS WAY. People who write stories thinking they can "improve something" in the series is the biggest stumbling block that a writer can trip over. We shouldn't think we can "improve the series" and start breaking apart the series that we supposedly love. That isn't the job of a facfic writer; at the end of the day: we are _fans._ We are not members of the production staff. Those who have taken this mindset of "improving" Strike Witches have caused irreparable damage to the series, their stories and even tarnished the names of the fan base with this quite frankly arrogant, hazard ridden mindset.

Rather than thinking we can "Improve the series", a fanfic writer must instead write with the intention of _"exploring"_ the series. A fanfic writer should not be trying to re-write the mechanics, world or characters while trying to make it come off as taking place in the same verse as the cannon anime, movie, doujn and light novels. Instead they must look at what the series is, take all the elements of what is both shown, written and depicted in the series, as well as what can be reasonably extrapolated from all this information from careful observation and educated guess work; and then explore the possibilities with all these elements in mind. The writers of One Winged Witches, The Suomus Misfits, Tiger in the desert, Witch in Africa, Witches of the Sphinx and Witch of Capuzzo are examples of fans and peers of crafting anime and manga who saw the series, researched the material and whole heartedly embraced each and every aspect of Strike Witches and chose to "explore" the Strike Witches world in these story's instead of trying to change or "improve" the series. As a result; the original creator, Shimada, saw these works and not only liked them enough, but saw the amount of care and respect to the source material and how true to form it stayed to his original vision that he chose to endorse the characters, strikers, and even the events that took place in these stories as cannon to his series. I'm of course not saying that Shimada himself is ever going to do the same for our works, but it does demonstrate how strong, well written and respectful to the source material these written works are that they were endorsed as part of the series expanded universe by the creator.

Speaking of respect, that is another thing that must be taken into account as a writers mindset. Besides love for the series: you must also _show respect_ to the series. What that means is that you see every element in the series; the Strike Witches world, the joint fighter wings, the witches, the Neuroi, the politics, the culture, the weapons, the strikers, the familiars, the lack of pants, the Yuri, the fact that the fate of humanities survival and the fate of the world rests in the hands of young, strong, independent girls that can take care of themselves, everything about the series and you accept it all for what it is and respect it. When you write your stories you must ensure that when you're writing a fic that you're not doing something that would be disrespecting the characters, the verse or the series as a whole by trying to change what makes strike witches: Strike Witches.

This will be covered in greater detail in later chapters but writing a story where some random guy with impossible magic comes around to turn those strong, independent, intelligent young girls into weak kneed, incompetent, idiotic fools that go from being well trained soldiers of magic to nothing more than eye candy, an award or even worse as a walking talking sex doll: is NOT respectful to the Strike Witches series. If anything it is downright disrespectful and offensive.

For a fan of a series who aspires to become a Fanfiction writer, when a series speaks to us we sometimes feel the need to speak back to the series we love in its own language. We must be sure to do so with love, respect and affection. To write a scenario like the above for a Strike Witches fic would be akin to taking a baseball bat, beating the series to a bloody pulp while shouting every obscenity in the human language, dancing a jig on its skull, kicking it in first the groin, then the ass and flipping it off while walking away. It doesn't bode well for other fans nor for the creators when a fanfic writer does this.

Also its best to avoid trying to write Strike Witches as something it's not, specifically trying to re-tool the genre that it falls under, because unless you possess exceptional skill, knowledge, experience or raw talent, then it will be an attempt that will more often than not end up being tedious, arduous, stressful and an overall difficult process that has a high likely hood of falling flat. Trying to remove the Yuri in strike witches and instead trying to write it as a harem story with a male lead is a dead on arrival scenario, and by the far the weakest of story concepts; always clichéd, always poorly written, always overdone to death, always suffering from a cancerous, weekly characterized and generally unlikeable male protagonist. And again, it's also a disrespectful defilement of the series for the reasons stated before. If you want to fail quickly as a writer of a Strike Witches fic: write a male hero harem story. Want to make it fail even faster: make him a Gary Stu. (I'll be covering this particular subject in latter chapters, so please be sure to stay with me long enough so I can explain some of this.) Trying to re-write it as a "grim-dark-as-fuck" horror/drama is also a concept to approach with caution because most amateur writers often times aren't known for writing good horror/drama due to inexperience and being unaware of how drama and horror works, so until you new writers have some writing experience under your belt and do some research, I'd advise avoiding trying to write Strike Witches into such a genre. Some common mistakes made by new or inexperienced writers in this genre often have: pointless, sudden deaths with no build up that feel cheep, contrived and forced conflict for conflicts sake, wallowing in a mire of sickening physical, mental and emotional abuse chapter after chapter, characters holding the idiot ball in situations where really they should 't be, characters wangsting about everything in the world around them and doing nothing to change things, amongst others. There are a few other genres that wouldn't work well, if at all, for strike witches in general, so just know what Strike Witches is: It's a Military/War story, Magical Girl, Mecha, Military Slice of Life, Drama, Yuri series. Try working with this to start for your first fic and take on the mindsets stated above and you will be able to craft a very good story.

One final thing about being a fanfic writer is to be aware of and cautious of the readers. While suggestions from fans of your story are alright, and it's always nice to hear from the people who read your story; don't let the readers dictate to you or the characters what should happen if the suggestions are bad ideas, wouldn't work, might derail your story, or just have no place in the narrative. Sometimes a reader might have a great idea, other times it's a real stinker. Keep in mind that constructive criticism that is made to help you grow isn't the same as a person asking for something to happen or someone to appear in your story because they want it to happen; these are two completely different things.

Just be mindful of the series and yourself. And when you write, don't write to satisfy your readers, to become popular over the net or to push something though your story: do it because you love the series and you love to write. And because you want to give a love letter to the Strike Witches through the written word. Doing that will be another step to writing a good Strike Witches fic.

Also to our dear readers out there: the review's section isn't a comments section; it's for _reviews_. We writers need critical, in-depth, constructive feedback for things that we may or may not have missed. We need to know wither we as writers are doing something on a mechanical, narrative, character driven or world building level right or wrong. We want to know what you like, what you don't like, what you think of our work, and more importantly: _why_ these things are the case. We look to you guys desperately for such feedback. Encouragement and kind words are nice, but a well thought out, critical review about how you view our stories and why you see what you see in them is even better. We can't do much or know whether we are doing things right or wrong in these areas, or just what you think of the things happening in the story unless you tell us your thoughts. Writers like me crave feedback more than we do praise; we want to know what makes the minds of our readers tick and how they think and feel in deep detail about the plots, narrative characters and events of our stories. Writers like me: we want to pick your brains. Don't be shy or feel intimidated to share with us your thoughts, feelings and paradigms when you read our work. It will provide a great deal of insight into our readers and stimulate engaging discussion between writers and readers alike.


	4. Chapter 4: The Witches

Chapter 4: The Witches

You can't have a Strike Witches fanfic without witches: it's like trying to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich without the bread. Witches are the glue that holds the series together. Without the Witches: it just wouldn't be strike witches; the focus for any strike witches story must always fall upon the witches. It may not have to specifically be from the point of view of the 501st Joint Fighter Wing, but the story of Strike Witches is the story of our girls of magical power living and fighting in a world at war with an alien threat. In this chapter we will be talking about the witches themselves, what a witch is, what abilities aside from magic they possess, witches familiars and a few other things regarding witch kind. Witches magic will be covered in greater detail in the next chapter, but there will be a brief preview on a witches magical abilities in this chapter.

Firstly: what is a witch?

A witch is a young magical girl that possesses great, innate magical potential. Able to control the ether and focus their abilities in the magic arts. They are humanities champions, mankind's protectors, the bane of Neuroi. They go by many names by the people they protect and from the men they serve alongside: "cutie witches", "angels of the land and sky"," Panzerfrauline", "Dancing Lioness Princesses", "Enchanted Cowgirls", "Roughriders" to name a few.

Witches are young girls and young women who bring hope to the majority of mankind. Born to the duties and responsibility of using their power to do the greatest and utmost good. Even some of the most arrogant, stubborn, foul mouth, ill tempered, unmotivated, haphazard, anti-social, perverted or aloof witches still possess an innate desire to make use of their gifts for others, albeit in their own unique way. Even with most being children they bear the responsibilities, some would go so far as to say burden, of protecting mankind. Witches hail from many countries, come from many walks of life, come in many shapes and sizes and run the gaunt of personalities, interests and each of these girls hold to their own dreams, goals and ambitions.

Witches are born with the gift of magic, being capable of astounding feats of strength, endurance and better intelligence then most other children or even most adults. In their world, only these young girls can wield magic and channel raw ether through their bodies. Amongst all of human kind only the girls who are born to the powers of magic can wield such power, 99.99% of the male population cannot wield magic, and of the incredibly rare 0.1% that are rumored to wield magic are reportedly weaker then the weakest witch, nothing more than conjurers of cheep card tricks and possessing only slightly above average strength compared to mundane men (this is an immutable fact confirmed by cannon).However: as a disclaimer the information regarding male magic users existing in striker witches in any capacity comes from an unverified source and is not to be considered canon, so if you plan on trying to write stories that are accurate and respectful to both cannon and source material in Strike Witches it is likely that male magic user in fact **don't** exist. So the realm of magic is limited to the domain of girls. All witches are capable of raising a shield, and also possess a magical barrier-like field around their body's that allow them to resist to varying degrees the harsh elements, and can even survive in the vacuum of space, so long as their magical reserves held firm.

All witches possess superhuman abilities for girls of their age. Witches are capable of great feats of strength far surpassing a grown, physically fit man: being able to carry weapons, ammo, cannons and gear that even the strongest, fittest and healthiest of men cannot do. Witches are pint sized power houses, being able to carry weapons like the Arisaka, Garand, Lee-Enfield, BAR, Witch Combat Gun, Bren, MG34, MG42, M1919A6 and even the M2 Browning as if they were mere rifles. Witches can even carry heavy crew served weapons like autocannons or heavy anti-tank weapons like the PIAT, Boys Mark 1, Panzerchreck and Fligerhammer easily. Some witches have magic that can further augment their already amazing strength.

In addition, and it's something that quite a few Strike Witches Fanfic writers seems to miss: is that these are all normal WW2 weapons and munitions. Neuroi are a powerful, grave threat with incredible defenses. When in the hands of a normal, mundane soldier, a weapon like these either does nothing or very little by itself. Even with heavier weapons and/or larger number of weapons it takes a great deal of effort to take down Neuroi that are of large enough size, and even the smaller sizes sometimes need a full clip or more dumped into the Neuroi in question to even expose the core. Against vehicle sized Neuroi and larger conventional small arms are useless and use of anti-tank weapons, artillery, armor and aircraft weapons payloads are required, but even then it requires a lot of ammunition and weapon systems, and perhaps a healthy dose of luck to be even remotely effective. And against the largest and most powerful Neuroi, mundane arms of men do jack diddly. Their is no effect. Powerful WW2 Ships can fire full broadsides at such Neuroi and have no effect on target, or what little effect it has is marginal and is immediately regenerated. And yet these same weapons in the witches hands fair so much better against Neuroi in battle. The reason for this is because a witches magic becomes imbued into the weapons and ammo she carries; in her hands, that MG42 becomes ten times as powerful then if it were in the hands of a mundane soldier. In addition some witches can imbue further magic power into their weapons and ammo for even greater damage. (this will be covered in the next chapter in greater detail). A witches power can also mitigate the issues regarding a weapons recoil, stabilizing the weapon to grant her easier use of her firearm while in battle.

Each witch has a sort of pool of magic that they can use, after making heavy and/or prolonged use of their magic these magic reserves start to dwindle. After a witch is spent, that witches magical reserve has to be replenished with a good meal, water and some rest. Even with magic witches have limits, while witches are capable of passing normal human limits for your average, mundane person, going past these limits can prove dangerous as a witch over exerting herself could be put at greater risk of injury or even death.

One thing that quite a few fanfic writers of Strike Witches fics seem to be forgetful of is that: just because the witches are young girls does _NOT _mean that they are weak and in need of men to save them. It is, in fact the inverse: it is the military men that need the witches to save their bacon in battle. Case in point is that in every instance in the anime that we have seen navel fleets of ships fighting the Neuroi they often faired little chance against alien laser fire. In fact, whenever the ships went head to head against many of the large Neuroi classes the ships were often heavily damaged if not outright sunk.

In the movies, while a company of Liberion and Kralsland infantry and tanks managed to trade blows respectfully with some walker class Neuroi with offshore artillery bombardment from the navy providing fire support, when the large class flying Neuroi appeared it completely destroyed the infantry and tanks in less than three seconds, and then proceeded to cripple or outright destroy the offshore fleet in short order, soon followed by wiping a whole city off the face of the earth. This shows that humanities mundane fighting forces can do very little if anything against the Neuroi, any attack with mundane troops will demand the use of large waves and tremendous firepower, and even then it will result in heavy casualties. Even then, victory is by no means guaranteed.

With this latter example compare this to when the witches of the 501st closed with and engaged the very same Neuroi that destroyed the Karlsland and Liberion infantry and tanks, as well as the naval fleet and razed the city to the ground. When the 501st engaged this particular Neuroi, they managed to destroy this very same, extremely powerful Neuroi in under 60 seconds. What this demonstrates is the tremendous power that lies within the very being of a witch. As stated before: witches are the only true, effective counter to the Neuroi. Without witches fighting on the field of battle humanity would have gone extinct ages ago.

Another example was seen in witch in the desert where a mixed unit of Britannian, Karlsland, Romagnan and Liberion men that were part of an artillery battery were trading blows with Neuroi, and while they fared well at range due to the terrine of the African desert and from engaging the enemy at long range, once the Neuroi drew close they could use their lasers more effectively and at that point proceeded to cut through entire swaths of men in a hail of lasers and Neuroi bullets with ease. It wasn't until Hanna Marseille and Major Cecilia Glinda Miles of "C" Squadron, 4th Armoured Brigade arrived on the battlefield to save the lives of the soldiers and even the support and cooking staff that had taken to the field. That's right: the girls came to the rescue of the guys. While there may be a few instances of witches needing help in some of the official source mateiral, it doesn't overshadow the fact that witches do as much saving of mundane forces. If anything witches are doing the saving or everyone is standing side by side together and keeping each other covered. And when witches do get rescued in those few instances, it more often than not rescue conducted by fellow witches, not really all that much by the mundane troops. Are their times that the witches need help? Of course. But that doesn't mean that because they are girls that they are week, incompetent damsels in distress, because they are not. They are soldiers of magic fighting a fierce, dire enemy that only they can counter, and often have to fight in fierce battles that can fatigue them and drain their magic reserves. If you want to know how to best portray the witches in your story, read the light novels, doujinshi and official source material to better get an understanding of how to show these girls in combat.

Also remember that there is a reason that witches in these joint fighter wings wear military uniforms: it is because they serve in the military. They are not cosplaying as soldiers: they _are _soldiers. They are in fact soldiers of magical might, young super solders born and charged with the protection of humanity against any threats. They train, drill, fight, quote military law and follow strict regulations for a reason. They aren't attending a convention: they are fighting a war. There are many examples of witches receiving serious if not life threatening wounds while serving, in addition to the fact they are no strangers to death, even death reaching large tallies both for civilians and military personnel. Witches have seen many towns and cities razed to the ground, refugees being displaced to live in refugee camps, the land slowly turning sick under prolonged Neuroi control, and even a few cases where witches have seen other witches perish in battle; such is the case with Laura Toph and Elizabeth Berling. Again: the witches are soldiers and are fighting a very grim, desperate war. The Witches are tough, strong, independent competent, and brave girls. They are NOT to be written as some male protagonists personal comfort battalion (which I see happening a lot in strike witches fanfiction and this is, for some inconceivable reason, being depicted as a good thing. It is anything BUT good).

Witches are powerful solders of magical might. As a fan of strike witches: NEVER FORGET THIS!

That being said, even When military law has to be followed strictly and taken seriously, their have been times when civilian lives and the lives of mundane and witch comrades are in peril. When it comes to human life it is shown that witches are humanities protectors, that the witches are people much like those they protect. Humanity in the Strike Witches world ask themselves with frequency: "what does victory mean to us?" It is because of this that on occasion that a witch knows well what her orders are but their are times where she must abide by what her heart tells her. In one particular instance: when the witches stationed in Africa were ordered to retake the Suez Canal and therefore leave an under equipped, desperate, exhausted Egyptian army as well as hundreds of thousands of countless civilians that had yet to evacuate and were being advanced upon by the Neuroi. Even when given this order to focus only on trying to retake the Suez, the witches of humanity stationed in Africa disregarded marching orders to retake the Suez and instead evacuated the citizens and haggard army of Cairo Egypt, coming to the aid of the people. Why did these girls, these young soldiers of magic, disobey their orders?

The answer can be summed up in this simple exchange between General Montgomery and General Patton by the end of the second Volume of the Switches of the Sphinx doujin. Montgomery asked, referencing a past scenario why it was that when the witches were ordered to defend the Suez they instead worked to save the citizens of Cairo. As Patton explained to Montgomery it's because before being soldiers, the girls are... Witches... and people first.

While many of the witches of humanity have served in the military to fight against the Neuroi, it's important for both them and us to remember just what it is they are fighting for. Much like for the point about witches being powerful soldiers of magical might; it's equally important, if not even more important, especially given the tone of the series regarding it's place on the idealism scale, what is it what that the witches and humanity fight for? Why do they fight? What does victory mean to the witches and to humanity in the face of annihilation against the Neuroi. As stated before, as a fan of Strike Witches: NEVER FORGET THIS!

Moving on from there we come to age ranges of witches. For a witches magic to manifest, it's often at ages very young from around the ages of 7 to 11 on average is where a witches magical potential is awakened, and either immediately met with or soon followed by making a compact with a familiar. A witches magic at this time isn't easily wielded for the most part; it requires a great degree of training and practice before a witch can even wield and properly focus and control their magic. Like how a baby must learn to crawl before it can walk, or how a toddler must walk before they can run, such incremental progression in magical proficiency must also be seen as the same for a witch.

The normal ages for witches to enlist appear to be at around on average twelve years of age, possibly even eleven with written consent from a parent or guardian, although for countries like some parts of the Eurasian continent, Africa and Orussia in all likely hood have witches at younger ages possibly serving in the military or at least going though basic training and boot camps due to the heavy concentration of Neuroi holding a lot of territory in these regions, wither out of written consent by parents and guardians from some, possibly even conscription for others. Despite the idealistic tone of the series, keep in mind there could be a lot of things in the background that we don't see that might be happening; this is a desperate war for humanity after all. Remember the tone of the series as well as some of the implications found therein should you decide to explore such things however.

Magical proficiency for witches will often hit its peak potential at around ages 13 to 19, with the amount of training, experience and general use of a witches magic playing a key factor in how skilled or powerful your average witch is in her gifts. Upon reaching the ages of 20 and up for the majority of witches is the time when her magical ability begins to weaken due to age. Some witches lose some or all their ability to use magic faster than others, some witches at the ages of 22 to 24 are lucky enough to still have most of their magic potential before it begins to weaken but most witches aren't so lucky in this regard. Often the first thing to weaken is a witches shield, her barrier of protection against enemy fire. It is not uncommon for witches nearing the end of their military operational lifespan to hide how much weaker their shields become at this age. Some witches even go so far to continue fighting long after a she has passed her prime with an abysmally weak or non-existent shield, finding other means at trying to continue the fight out of obligation to humanity, the desire to continue fighting alongside their unit, for pride, duty and honor, or simply to keep engaging the Neuroi.

There are very few witches born to particular magical bloodlines that possess exceptional magical power and potential who are able to retain their abilities in using magic even far beyond the normal ages for witches to lose their magic. Witches like Tomoko Anabuki and Yoshika Myiafuji are two of such witches, being by far the most powerful and famous of witches. That being said, even witches of such strong magical potential still have to learn how to use their abilities properly, like any other witch. They have to train with and hone their skills in order to ensure they use such powerful magic to its full potential. As for the retention ages of magically powerful bloodlines, sometimes at the ages of 30, 40, 50 or even older are within the realm of possibility (possibly either due to powerful family magic bloodlines or even due to the nature of certain types of magic not straining a witches magical reserves, the full reasons behind loss of magic is currently unknown) but these are the exception, not the rule. For the most part witches start to lose their ability to use magic are somewhere around the twenty year mark.

For writers of Strike Witches fics its recommended to write a "run of the mill, average witch" and see what sort of story you can craft with her as the focus. If you want to write a story involving a witch of a "Powerful Bloodline" it is cautioned that you do not write an OC witch from an existing witch family (this will be explored in more detail in later chapters) and follow the rules of good character creation. And remember: don't write a Mary Sue witch (this too will be covered in later chapters).

Another thing to remember is that while there may be a great number of witches in the world, not every witch is in the military. While most witches enlist into military life for various reasons, it's also quite common for there to be civilian witches; witches who for one reason or another did not enlist in the military or had retired long past their prime and chose to return to civilian life instead of finding other roles in military service besides front line combat. Such witches are rather unique in the world for they chose to use their gifts in ways instead of answering the call to arms, or simply not to fight in uniform. While examples are few, they do exist, Matilda being possibly one such example. Although she fights alongside the 31st Joint Fighter Squadron Afrika and had been trained in the use of common infantry weapons, she is in fact does not formally belong to any military. She probably isn't the only such witch who isn't formally part of a nations military. However it should be kept in mind that such witches are, once again civilians: unless they had gone through rigorous physical, mental or magical training thanks to family, cultural/social structure, encouragement from one's peers or simply one's own personal initiative then on average their magic power and abilities will be considerably lacking compared to military witches.

The next topic to bring attention to is the subject of a witches familiar. A familiar is a sort of animal spirit that bind themselves to a witch through something called a "Familiars Compact", where the animal spirit leaves a unseen "mark" on a witch to serve as a witches familiar. Familiars usually seek out and form compacts with a witch either at the moment a witches magical potential is unlocked at a certain age or just shortly after such potential is unlocked. A familiar helps provide magical control for a witch and help with easily accessing raw either in the world around a witch to wield their magic powers, in addition to gaining ability's that are common to a particular animal species. In addition, every familiar has personalities and come from species as varied as the witches themselves, although it's noted that the majority are either particular mammals like various species of cats, various species of dogs, wolves, rabbits, foxes, mice, raccoon's, horses, weasels, bears, as well as a multitude of bird species. It's highly uncommon to near rarity to see witches possessing familiars of some mammals like Gazelle, Moose and Antelope, which include not only ears and tails but also horns and antlers. On top of that, as of thus far other animal species besides mammal and bird species are highly unknown to form compacts, as such non-mammal and non-bird species have yet to be observed, indicating that compacts with such animals are highly unlikely if not outright impossible. Their may be possibility of snakes (with witches manifesting their familiars snake tails and snake fangs) and lizards (with witches manifesting their familiars tails) being seen but they aren't really a very common animal spirit that forms compacts with the girls in question. The way a witch forms compacts with familiars varies: sometimes a witch chooses an animal spirit as a familiar, sometimes the familiar chooses the witch, other times a familiar and it's offspring remain with one family line for generations and others still where circumstances thrust witch and animal spirit together, Occasionally (though highly uncommon) witches who had and lost pets in their early childhood may find the spirits of their beloved animal friend returning to serve as the witches familiar.

It is extremely rare for a witches familiar to talk to either the witch they form compacts with or even with other people. It's more common that the familiars don't speak. Only witches of incredibly powerful magic potential have familiars that talk: case in point, Hanna Marseille is a skilled, powerful witch from Karlsland; a top ranking military ace, and not even her familiar can talk. Whereas both Yoshika and Tomoko have familiars that talk, although with the case of Yoshika's familiar he doesn't talk to Yoshika, only to other people when she isn't around or paying attention. The death of a familiar often times means either a huge diminishing or outright loss of a witches magical ability. When a witches synchronizes with their familiar they reside within the witch an manifest as their ears and tails, and usefully they reside inside the witch in question unless either they decide to show themselves or if the witch calls them forward.

It's very rare but witches like Matilda don't have familiars at all; indicating that the witch in question hasn't formed a compact with an animal spirit and possesses exceptional magical control either inherently or though extraneous training. Although it is also possible that such witches adhere to a different magical discipline then most of their witch peers, but it is uncertain if either of these things are the case. Ultimately it comes down to writer interpretation in such instances.

When it comes to witches serving in the military, the girls are faced with very stringent laws and protocol. While most commonly found laws involving theft, going AWOL, insubordination, reckless endangerment, mutiny and other laws regarding these and other matters are to be expected in a military setting, witches and soldiers they serve with are also subject to a unique piece of military law that many Strike Witches writers either miss, ignore or are not aware of: A blanket, worldwide prohibition against fraternizing or intimate relations between witches and mundane military personal of any and all ranks.

Undoubtedly shock and outrage are likely to fill some people out here reading this bit of confirmed cannon material. And as has been seen many people seem to believe that the prohibition between unnecessary fraternization was established by Minna due to the erroneous, uninformed belief that Minna Wilcke is either a straw feminist or a embittered woman trying to willfully undermine romance between he girls and your standard issue grunt, NCO, Officer or what have you, but in actuality this is incorrect: Minna didn't "make up" this law; she is ENFORCING the law. She is, after all; a Commanding officer of not only the 501st Joint Fighter Wing, but an officer of Karlsland. And if you've seen any military drama's in your time or served in the military before, you know that officers have to make sure that military laws and protocol are enforced. As stated it is a worldwide prohibition that is enforced to varying degrees by both between nation and by individual unit; with some being stricter then others. Minna is certainty being strict in the enforcement of this law.

Why would such a law of worldwide prohibition on romantic fraternization and intimacy be drawn up, written up and enforced? There is a reason for such a prohibition to be placed worldwide, and if thought into the subject was weighed fans of Strike Witches would understand the reason and the common sense behind such a prohibition. The reasons are as follows:

The majority of the girls are underage minors entering or in the cusp of puberty: the regs are enforced to protect these young girls from the advances of the much older men they serve alongside to prevent them from being taken advantage of. Remember, these are children; someone's little girl: if it were your sixteen year old or younger daughter being accosted by some random guy you would tear him a new asshole faster than you can say "jailbait". Part of the reason that the prohibition exists is to protect the witches from being exploited. Even despite a nations age of consent being likely to vary from nation to nation, since all of humanities militaries are working together, it requires a standardization to keep witches from every nation from being accosted and avoid major PR disasters back in the respective witches homeland.

Secondly it's to prevent the girls from getting pregnant. Aside from and maybe even disregarding the issue raised above, even for witches who reach the ages of consent; romance would still be highly, heavily, militantly discouraged between heterosexual pairings because the witches are required on the front lines to fight the Neuroi, and so far there hasn't been much development in terms of contraceptives in the 1940's save for possibly the condom but frankly the 1940's era condom wouldn't have been a cutting edge contraceptive due to the material be made of fibers that were often times unreliable and more often than not didn't allow for much physical pleasure between sexual partners.

What's more, while out in field or in the battle theater you would be hard pressed to get a hold of one, especially in short notice. A witch that gets in a romantic, intimate and even sexual relationship with a guy could get pregnant from having sexual intercourse with a male soldier and would their fore have to be taken out of service and placed on maternity leave. That means that the witch in question is out of action, which means that the joint fighter wing is down a solider that they would need and weaken the unit's strength, which means they would have to find a new body for their unit and get the unit's strength back up. This in turn means trying to find said new body to fill the position in the squad, which until then would mean a decrease the units combat effectiveness and overall compromise humanity's armies military strength. What all this ultimately boils down to is that because the witch got knocked up it results in one less witch that is needed on the frontline fighting the Neuroi, one less witch providing them with an easier fought victory against extinction.

Flirting on occasion may be all well and good but nothing more would be allowed to occur because without the witches fighting the enemy and holding the line humanity is going to have a much harder time surviving the war. Witches falling in love with other witches is not thought much of in the world the strike witches inhabit because at least if the girls fell in love with other witches and decided to have intimate or sexual relationships then at least they could still be combat effective: they won't get pregnant and as a result they can remain in active duty. If it were a case of a mundane G.I Jane falling for mundane G.I. Joe it wouldn't be much of an issue because of the fact they are pretty much equal to each other and if G.I. Jane got knocked up then it's just another mundane solider taken out of rotation, but witches are vital, powerful personnel required to turn the tides of battle against the Neuroi. Both they and humanities militaries can't afford the witches getting pregnant thanks to some idiot who couldn't keep his "sidearm holstered." With other women with no magical aptitude it's not as much an issue.

The third reason is because witches have magic shields and their magic; they are given much greater protection and survivability in combat. Men, who are nothing more than average G.I. Joe Shmoe's, do not, and their fore would be atomized and cut down easily by Neuroi laser fire. Even if a witch did somehow fall in love with a basic, average, dog face trooper and wanted to pursue a romantic relationship, his survivability would be painfully low; it's only somewhat marginally better if his unit is attached to or fighting alongside a witch unit. Even then survival is not guaranteed. The fact of the matter is if a Witch got emotionally attached romantically to a man, the loss she would experience if he was killed, which is highly likely, would devastate her. In a similar vein to how pregnant withes would have to be taken out of service, a witch suffering the emotional trauma and loss, suffering from PTSD brought on by loss of a loved one in combat, would compromise their decisions in combat , hinder the quality of their service or even render them unfit to serve if it is severe enough, which would require them to take medical leave to seek psychiatric care.

Developing feelings romantically for a fellow witch is not discouraged very much if at all because witches have shields and magic to bring to bear on the field of battle: there is less likely hood of a witch getting killed in combat thanks to her power protecting her, in addition to that of her comrade witches also protecting her and her comrades in turn. Losing loved ones hurts people, it damages them, such wounds to the heart, mind and soul take a long time to heal. And losing loved ones to the horrors of war is as bad if not worse. Even witches who have lost comrade witches suffer deep wounds and struggle with this baggage. Losing the man or woman you loved would be the same, but with the witches, at least, the likely hood of your beloved comrade witch coming back to barracks with you is better than say a witch hoping that her beloved G.I. Joe would be returning to base and fearing that the last time she ever sees him alive again is when they both sortie on the field of battle. This fear would compel quite a few young witches to disregard orders and even personal safety if it means their beloved solider survives the flames of combat.

Remember, these are young girls. Only those old in years and combat experience or possessing uncommon maturity for their age would be able to balance both their duties as solders and their love for their mundane solider boys while serving. Regulations preventing men and witches from unnecessary contact, or developing romantic emotional attachment with each other gives the girls a measure of detachment, or at least enough to soften the blows when men die fighting against the Neuroi. Without this regulation in place, these young girls would be complete and total emotional wrecks. It would be the same for a man falling in love with a female solider and then losing her to the fires of combat; he would be devastated. It's at this last point where one can see Minna's position: she had experienced first hand what happens when the prohibition against such levels of fraternization are not followed; what with Kurt being killed and the affect it had on her well being, and realizing that there is a reason for establishing the prohibition for Military witches. Also to reiterate: only witches serving in the military are subject to these laws: civilian witches are exempt because they are, of course, civilians.

Now there will be some who will be quick to point out that Friederike Porsche, who was serving as ground attack air infantry was a witch who fell in love with a tank commander and started a romantic relationship with him. While this may be true, keep in mind: she and her love interest were breaking a _huge_ military regulation. The only reason it continued on for a long as it did was because she was already nearing the age of where her magic was dwindling and weakening; she was already nearing retirement. If as a strike witches writer you want to pursue writing such a relationship (heterosexual relationships will be covered in later chapters, as will Lesbian relationships), remember that the witch and the man she has fallen for are basically breaking a huge military law, show the consequences of pursuing a relationship in defiance to military law, instead of either glossing over it at best or outright ignoring it at worst. Show how the couple try to romance each other from shadow, kind of like Romeo and Juliet if you need an example as a reference. Just show some realism, time and effort into building the relationship. If the pair are caught expect them to face heavy reprimands, reprisals, and severe punishments; some possible examples for punishments include demotion, confinement to quarters, reduction in pay, demerits to ones military record, a short confinement to the stockade, perhaps both romantic parties getting reassigned to separate fronts and theaters or at the least different units, and for guys who try to pursue underage witches would face longer time spent in the stockade if not dishonorable discharge. Stay aware of all this and keep yourself grounded in some measure of reality. All this must be kept in mind if writers intend to write Strike Witches fan fiction, and this bit of information must be respected and taken for what it is.

Now one of the things that can be noticed by even a casual observer in strike witches is that in general but especially as is the case in the 501st Joint Fighter Wing is that as far as a witches sexuality is concerned; the majority of witches are inclined to peruse fellow witches, as evidenced with the text and subtext of the interactions of witches like Eila and Sanya, Yoshika and Lynne and Minna and Mio. It's even of unanimous consensus amongst the fanbase that Gertrud is a major siscon for her sister Christine. It's important a Strike Witches author to keep in mind the established relationships and bonds that witches form with each other. And attraction or even preference for other witches appears to be a very common norm in the Strike Witches universe. Is there a possibility of their being witches who are possibly straight or bisexual? It's possible. But it is clear that the majority of witches are either fully lesbian or at least bisexual with a preference for girls.

Girls who are bi with preferences towards boys or who are heterosexual seem to be in the minority in the witches verse. While the aspects regarding how to go about heterosexual and Lesbian relationships will be fully covered in later chapters, keep in mind that the strike witches world that due to the nature of their worlds culture, the nature of the Neuroi war, and the fact these young girls are serving in the military closely alongside each other, that it's very common for witches to develop friendships if not full on romantic relationships with fellow witches. (More details into this area's will also be explored in later chapters). While I'm not saying that exploration into witch pairings should be discouraged, is should be warned that changing an existing cannon witches sexuality oftentimes brings up unfortunate implications and sets a bad precedent in stories that would otherwise revolve around the exploration of camaraderie, friendship and even love that girls have for each other in the series. Unless you have a huge deal of carefully handled, well crafted, professionally done, respectful development over time you could very well end up derailing the characters off a cliff and into the ocean, and that goes either for hetrosexual or Lesbian pairings, but such matters will be covered in later chapters in further detail.

One other thing to keep in mind is that because of how valuable a witch is in humanity fight for survival during the Neuroi war, the witches are often given considerable comforts in terms of living quarters, service pay, supplies, amenities and logistics compared to the average solider. The reason for this is because of the fact that witches are the only true, effective counter to Neuroi, they have to be at their best: they have to be happy, healthy (in terms of mind, body and spirit) safe and secure, relaxed and comfortable. While not every witches base is a grand and luxurious as the bases of the 501rst Joint Fighter Wing, most often have a large deal of concessions in place to ensure that humanities armored angels are well taken care of. Some witches either take warmly to such comforts, while some are rather uncomfortable having such comforts provided to them, although others likely don't think one way or the other about it. Even if its simply a camp of nothing more then standard issue military tents, the witches are given the best of creature comforts, or at least to the best of the supply officers ability to provide. While their may be exceptions to this, it most certainty not be a camp filled with negligence, abuse and abysmal living conditions; such a case appearing in the Ox Girls Fanfic. A story filled with nightmarishly abusive and god awful camp such as that is cartoonishly unrealistic for the Strike Witches world. In fact, not only would such an environment undermine the physical and mental well being of a witch, it would also undermine unit cohesion and moral and also undermine the combat effectiveness of the witches; something that humanity CANNOT afford. Not only that, it would make any girls that were shaped by such a unit into a danger to both other witches, military personnel and even to civilians once their service time as witches were done. An environment like that isn't something to be written in a positive light: if anything a writer, if they decided to show such an environment should write it with tones of disgust and condemnation. Though honestly such a unit shouldn't even exist to begin with: for breaking every conceivable military law and violating all sense of human decency such deplorable units and bases should be shut down.

Lastly when you write a Strike Witches Fanfic, when it comes to the cannon witches: keep the overall essence and spirit of these girls alive. Have them always act in character, or as close to as in character as you can write. Study their biographies, read source material that feature them. Not just for the 501st, but the girls of all the witch units; this all leads us back to the first chapter on the subject of research. Look at their interactions both on the surface and deep beneath the surface, look at their personalities, their interactions, their thoughts and feelings. Strike Witches fans expect to see their favorite girls growing, developing, experiencing new things and living their lives. Always ensure that the characters feel like that are the witches we all know and love and not some cheep knockoffs wearing dollar store brand masks that are masquerading and putting on a D-list performance while pretending to be our girls.

Ah! I almost forgot one other thing before finishing up which for the fans is an obvious one and for new comers to the series will address the elephant in the room: why the witches don't wear pants. Wither it's panties, tights, shorts, skirts, and in the case of Fuso Army Witches the Witch Combat Bracers, overall one of the main elements of the show is that every one of the witches uniform is half a uniform. The reason for the lack of pants is because of the nature of the striker unit requiring either skin contact or extremely form fitting leg articles like pantyhose and tights (which will be covered in a late chapter) and because active duty witches have be able to don their strikers quickly when an enemy attack arises. Another thing of note is that even non-witch women often go pants-less. Since the witches are often hailed as war hero's and celebrities many young girls and young women who are in the know often wear no pants as a show of support and devotion to the girls serving on the front-lines. Even those who don't know of the fame and idolatry of witches go pants-less, although in this case it is out of ignorance of witch fandom in universe of Strike Witches and just seeing everyone else wearing no pants and saying "eh, why not?" So far the only witch that wears pants regularly is Air Commodore Adolfine Galland, the highest ranking witch in military history.

Just remember everyone: it's called "Strike Witches". The story revolves around them in the anime and movie, it revolves around them tiger in desert novel and doujin series; it's the girls story. But if you are one of the writers who really want to write about a guy or from a different POV; have it be one of the mundane soldiers (and keep him a mundane solider) trying to fight in the nightmarish horrors of human on Neuroi warfare ( a scenario rife with drama, conflict and suspense), give him a relatable personality and as we watch his unit barley holding on or just about to be wiped out when, lo and behold, and angel in a striker unit from the flank on the land or aloft in the sky rushes forth and saves his unit from being destroyed. Or have other mundane military personnel or even views from the eyes of civilians reacting to these young girls of magical power helping, protecting and even saving them.

This is the Strike Witches series. The story is ultimately about the witches; that is the focus of the stories in cannon materials and it should remain the focus in Strike Witches Fanfiction. Even if it's from the POV's of other people within the verse, the focus should always be on the witches, the point is that these girls are the main hero's front and center, everyone else is part of the tertiary cast or supporting cast . Once a Strike Witches fanfic takes the spotlight _off_ the witches, then... well... it _stops_ being a Strike Witches story, now doesn't it? And for a Strike Witches Fanfic writer; that is that last thing we want to do.


	5. Chapter 5: Magic and Magical Sceince

Chapter 5: Magic, Magical Science and Physics

Witches possess magical power that is inherent to them; that is a given for every witch. However, not every innate magical ability is the same: some witches may share similar innate skills or even share abilities that may blend abilities of other spells to make a new one that is unique, but Magic abilities run the gaunt of types. Not only that, but Magic itself is different in Strike Witches compared to other forms of entertainment media that feature magic. Add to the fact magic comes in many shapes and forms and belongs to many different types of what is known as "Lineage". Also, while most innate magical abilities are inherited, there are some spells, although very few: that witches can learn. In this chapter we will be covering in detail magic, magical science and the laws of physics of the world and it's relation to magic.

Each and every witch that exists possesses an innate magical spell that is awakened when a witches powers begin to manifest, with control and access to the ether to activate and use these spells becoming easier, if not out and out possible when a witch forms a compact with a familiar. Although not every witches magic ability in the cannon verse of the cannon characters has been clearly and specifically detailed or chronicled in detail as of yet, the few witches that do have their magic spells and abilities recorded follow their own set of types and uses, and if carefully looked at one will find that that Magic in Strike Witches is unique. And what little abilities, actions and hints of some witches Magical power can be extrapolated to one degree or another. But to start this lengthy, comprehensive chapter: it may come to a surprise to many newcomers or casual viewers of Strike Witches to note that Strike Witches Magic is different compared to most types of magic found in high fantasy settings or your "Standard Magical Girl" Anime.

Fantasy based magic as well as your standard Magical Girl anime magic are often flashy, extravagant, bombastic and more often than not break the laws of physics and reality. They are powers that have ungodly and insane amounts of power and can be wielded easily and with little to no hindrance or drawback (unless of course you're looking at necromancy, black magic and blood magic but that's a whole other can of worms that won't be covered in this guide). And often times such magic is used quite frequently by such magic users and within their series.

Take a setting like Final Fantasy, Lyrical Magical Girl Nanoha, Sailor Moon or Dungeons and Dragons or any sort of other type of magical girl anime: look at the sorts of magic you can find in these series, how they function, what they can do and how they often break the laws of conventionally known and understood physics. Now: place these series and their magic's beside the series and magic of Strike Witches? Notice a difference?

While it is categorized as a Magical Girl Series, Strike Witches is avant-garde in that while it is a universe that has magic in it: that there are limits to this sort of magic. While still quite powerful for what it can do; magic in Strike Witches is bound by the laws of physics. It is logical. It's rational. It's even studied and taught as a science with the presence of Magic-Tech...in other words: The Striker Unit (which will be detailed in the next chapter). Not to mention actual spells are used quite conservatively, unlike the liberal application of magic in other anime series. It's important to keep in mind that if you plan on writing a witch and creating her powers: you must keep yourself grounded and not have anything that would break the laws of physics and approach magic creation with thought, care and reason as you would be when you enter science class. When one says "magic" it is easy to assume that automatically means that it already breaks the laws of physics and reality; but this is not the case in Strike Witches. Strike Witches magic must make sense: a witches abilities have a practical use on the battlefield and if you intend to create a witch that is a key piece of information to carry with you during witch creation. That means things like conjuring massive dungeon bypass beams, summoning a giant snake, assimilating tank cannons into your arms or "wash-basins-falling-on-your-head" types of magic and other such spells are by the laws of the Strike Witches world's physics, universe and magic science: impossible.

Magic is basically a witches ability to tap into the ether and on a scientific, molecular level manipulate the physical world around them to be able to use their inherent abilities and fight in battle. This may require some measure of basic understanding in science or chemistry, or at least a laymen's grasp of it, since in Strike Witches; magic is an honest to goodness science. The molecules, atoms and the periodic table of the elements are ever present and used. While ether is an energy that permeates the witches world and its application by witches as a witches spell or as a means of powering her Striker is known as "Magic", witches manipulating the ether simply in turn manipulate molecules, atoms and periodic elements through the ether and manipulates them for the witch to cast her spells or power her striker and otherwise influence the world around her. Strike Witches magic does not _break _the laws of physics: it _works with _the laws of physics. Simply keep this in mind if you intend to create a true Strike Witches fanfic.

To briefly recap: a witches Magic Shield is a sort of barrier that is brought up to protect a witch from attack, not to mention that witches also have a magical field around their bodies to protect them to a limited degree from extreme hot or cold temperatures. Also their magic allows them to breath in low to zero oxygen environments for a period of time, and more importantly: protect them from the deadly Miasma that is spread by the Neuroi (possibly indefinitely). This latter point is why witches are vital in the war effort against the Neuroi, seeing as mundane soldiers can't get close to most Neuroi due to the spread of deadly Miasma.

Now each and every witch possesses an inherent magical ability, a permanent, essential characteristic of any given witch; that falls under something called "System Lineage" with variations being simply referred to as "Sub-System" or sometimes better known as "Series" , basically meaning a variation of a particular "System Lineage" of magic. This is a simple way that witches magic is categorized into the nature and type of magic's and in what capacity they are used.

Examples of the different types of magic present in the Strike Witches world are as follows: Attack System Lineage, Detection System Lineage, Intrinsic System Lineage, Telekinesis System Lineage, Perception System Lineage and Shield Control System Lineage. Any following examples of specific magic abilities are to be seen as a frame of reference for you to create your own inherent magic powers for your witches. A witches magic always has a name unique to the witch, regardless of the type and how similar it may or not be to another type of magic within its lineage.

Magic under the Attack System Lineage consist of spells that often used as direct attacks against targets: such examples include Perrine's Tonnerre, Erica's Sturm or any other magic of a similar nature. For Tonnerre this magic ability is cast when Perrine manipulates the ether at her fingertips to build up an intense electro-static charge to create a sort of lightning burst around her that can hit multiple targets around her depending on how much she can throttle the ether. Sturm is the manipulation of gusts of ether to attack enemies; basically it's the ability of manipulate the air, divert the enemies attacks and facilitate a special flight in a normal condition. This sort of magic on its own requires little concentration on Erica's part, but if she did concentrate hard enough she would be able con focus Sturm into her hand as a ball of swirling, ether enriched wind to attack heavy armor of a Neuroi. Most Attack System Linage spells, while quite powerful, do have the drawback of having a sort of costly trade off of some sort aside from draining a witches magical reserves and endurance; for Perrine it can cause her hair to become frizzy and unruly, for Erica she ends up becoming tired and hungry. In addition there could be different variations of such magic abilities and even if the same or similar element each ability would react differently, like a single , powerful bolt of lightning be cast or a wave of sharp wind that can cut into an enemy. It's also conceivable for other elements or type of attack lineage abilities to exist outside of lightning or wind, such as fire for example, although the use of using pure, raw ether based attacks would be beyond rare to the point of being unheard of, or at least outside of using magi-tech based ether projection cannons (something that has yet to be seen in official cannon of the anime or series but could be seen as a potential prototype weapon. Just keep in mind of what "Prototype Weapon" means and be sure to portray this in your written work). Other examples include Lucchini's Light and Heat Attack which allows her the ability to directly concentrate, manipulate somewhat, and discharge magic energy in a multi-shield. Most types of Attack System Lineage abilities have an activation word that is spoken while cast, most likely to help focus a witches power and concentration in using their abilities, although it's conceivable for exceptions to exist in regards to the activation word. While it's possible for such magic to exist in as various types and nature, always keep in mind the limitations and science regarding such magic. Remember, these sorts of magic follow the laws of physics; they aren't born out of nothing: ether allows witches to manipulate the natural elements with the help of raw ether alongside it being used to manipulate the elements of the physical world, so they must be treated as such.

Detection System Lineage allow for witches to detect objects, people or events by means of magic that seem they would likely stem from the ethers affect on a witches brain wavelengths allowing them to be able to detect and/or anticipate something. Most of such magic abilities include most forms of inherently awakened powers such as Foresight much like Eila's power (the ability to see into the near future or other such reactions) or in the case of Sanya the Magic Radar that allows a witch to detect and manipulate radar and radio waves as well as detecting the energy signatures of Neuroi (Magical Radar is a taught magical ability, not a magic born to witches, but it and other taught magic will be discussed later) although there may be other such types of abilities not limited to these two types of magic spells. Exact details into Foresight and similar magic's even within the cannon of Strike Witches an ability not fully understood, and many witches have different ways of focusing such powers, from training, the use of Tarot Cards or any other means to hone their abilities. Magic belonging to Detection System lineage are frequently non-visual in nature, likely using other senses that are stimulated, enhanced or altered by ether reacting to the chemical, electromagnetic and possibly even the spiritual aspects of a witch using such powers. However, due to the nature of Detection system lineage the exact science and theory how the application, use and nature behind Detection System Lineage regarding Foresight and similarly designed spells effects a witches person or the world around them on a scientific level is hard to peg down even with active research into the subject. Although it's likely to follow some form of science, it is both in the fandom and in the cannon verse one that is shrouded in mysticism in one degree or another; therefore it lays in us Fanfic writers to interpret how such a magic on a scientific level (or any level really) works and influences the world's natural laws. Magical Radar meanwhile allows a witch to pick up and detect radio waves, making them akin to bats using echolocation to find prey and detect predators or like how most conventional types radar is used. It's a Military Magic that is difficult for witches to train in, let alone master, but those that do are vital and key witches to field in the fight against the Neuroi and are often relegated to the task of Night Patrols. Such magical girls are known as "Night Witches" or "Nacht Hexen" in Karlslandic. It's possible that there may be other types of Magical Abilities that fall under Detection System Lineage, as well as others that follow different parameters of use like Laura Toth's Sense Acceleration which allows her to improve her perception and thus analyze the attack of opponents quicker than normal but seeing as she can't predict of where someone or something will shoot at her or where the shots will be placed, she has to face her opponent in order to dodge the attack otherwise she cannot avoid it.

Although the following is merely speculation in regards to this; such a magical ability in function would likely be akin to a sharks lateral line being able to detect pressure waves and movement, likely allowing her to detect movement through the ether saturated air and react accordingly when she is able to see the movement of the pressure waves of movement and the ether reacting to it although it is limited since for Laura Toth she must make eye contact in order to make use of this ability. This is, once again, speculation, but it would go on to explain the science behind how magic of this sort works. Although there would be other types of magic that may have different roles, functions and capacities in the Detection Lineage, there still has to be a form of reasonable logic, however, as stated before, the exact functions and science behind Detection Lineage Abilities outside of Magic Radar is difficult to discern: unless extremely detailed research is done into how they could conceivably work are done such details of how such magic would work are best left ambiguous. It would be up to the individual authors to decide wither to explore this or simply keep it a mystery left unanswered.

Intrinsic Ability Lineage are magic that are oftentimes consist of intrinsic abilities that for most magic spells allow for witches to sync with their familiars and receive boons in their magic abilities and physical prowess. Such magic include various sorts of speed based magic like Shirley's "Speed Boost" and Francie's "Short-Ranged Speed-Up", as well as abilities used by witches like Wakamoto Tetsuko's "Awakening" which allows her to unite with her familiar in which her magic power is amplified more than usual and she becomes endowed with a great striking power and extremely high mobility, although it results in intense power consumption that could overload her and her striker, as well as Hayate Nakajima apparently being able to sync with her familiar and achieve heightened instincts and senses, although after long periods this would result in her becoming feral (as evidenced in the second volume of Strike Witches: Maidens of the sky). Intrinsic magic, like all other forms of magic; would likely consist of various type of magic that are of an intrinsic nature.

Telekinesis Lineage involves witches manipulating ether with their mind and to in-act their wills on ether in the world and channel it to perform the tasks at hand in specific ways. Most types of magic involve the alteration and changing of mass in a witches body, as well as affecting objects, atoms, molecules, cells or distributing and condensing ether for prepossess that aren't directly combat related. Examples include Lynne's two abilities of Ballistic stabilization which allow for a degree of control of bullets and Grant magic power which focuses extra ether into the bullets she fires for extra damage (her sister Wilma also has Ballistic stabilization abilities of greater power and control then her younger sister does), as well as abilities as Super Human Strength (Both for a witch increasing her own physical abilities referred to as physical reinforcement, and for a witch like Mami Inagaki she uses a type of superhuman strength that reduces the weight of what she carries and allows her to surpass the Striker Units normal carrying weight; which is thought to belong to the weight reduction-series of magic.

Another thing of note that would be of surprise to casual fans is that Healing Magic is categorized under Telekinesis Lineage magic. Classified as a variety of the telekinesis-lineage, it puts a living thing back to how it was by means of magic and is effective not only against external wounds but also diseases. In essence damaged cells are either rapidly repaired by reversing the damage on a sub-atomic level or the normal biological healing process is expedited to degrees beyond what is normal. Witches with healing magic act differently from each other: Yoshika's healing magic and Fernandia Malvezzi's healing magic are different in that Fernandia's healing magic possesses no soothing, morphine like effect to wounded people, as seen when she healed a painful lump on Lucchini's head that the Romagnan of the 501st complained about still feeling sore even after the wound was healed. It's likely that Yoshika's healing magic is unique in this regard and is probably not the norm for witches gifted in healing magic. Nipa also possesses a form of healing magic, but instead of healing others, it is instead used (by means of inherent design) to rapidly repair any wounds and injuries that Nipa suffers upon syncing with her familiar.

Moving on from there we move onto Perception Lineage. As it is defined in Wikipedia: "Perception is the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and understand the environment. All perception involves signals in the nervous system, which in turn result from physical or chemical stimulation of the sense organs. For example, vision involves light striking the retina of the eye, smell is mediated by odor molecules, and hearing involves pressure waves." Ergo: Perception Lineage consists of magic that deals in this realm of inherent abilities. Cannon examples include Minna's Three Dimensional Space Understanding and Mio's Magic eye, although it's possible that other types of magic abilities exist that are not constrained by these two types of series magic alone.

Minna's magic: Three Dimensional Space Understanding and magic of its series of lineage used by other witches can be thought of as a magical Command and Control based ability allowing for identification and position of allied and enemy units. It allows a witch to perceive and discern all nearby targets in every direction, sorting out their position, number and classification. Such magic often would serve Witch Commanders very well in the field, or witches that excel in roles Command and Control. It's likely to be non-visual in nature seeing as Minna doesn't require making eye contact with a target, either friendly or hostile, in order to use her spell. It's possible (although unknown for sure) that this magic is based more on some other form of senses that we have yet to see or understand.

Witches possessing Magic eyes are the range finders of witches. While Magic eyes are often difficult to master, they are never the less very powerful in what they accomplish, and after training over time such witches can hone their skills and learn to control their magic, allowing witches to visually spot targets at distance or that are hidden (with some effort). Witches with Magic Eyes must first learn to look for what they want and visualize finding what they are looking for. Moat witches often use aids to help focus the use of their magic eyes, like eye patches, sniper scopes, covering an eye with their hands or possibly even sunglasses and aviator shades. After time training in their magic witches gifted with magic eyes can even spot the Cores of Neuroi; making them deadly in combat against the enemy. Magic of this sort are likely on the somewhat uncommon side, and while powerful in the role they carry out and fill, although it requires a great degree of control and using it for too long could cause not only a drain on a witches magic reserves but also possibly strain a witches eyes (although this part is mostly hypothetical and is left up to an individual writers interpretation). Another form of perception bases magic involving eyes include night vision allowing witches to see in low light or darkness, and is often a trait of quite a few night witches. There's also the possibility of other visual based magical powers like thermal vision, ultraviolet vision or others that may be of possibility, but these latter examples are mere speculation.

Of the magic's I have observed in much of the source material; one other sort of Lineage of magic is one that while not displayed in the anime or movie and not actually given an official name is a lineage of magic shown in "The Lion heart witch" doujin and light novel series and alluded to in the biographies of one or two witches that I have often hypothesized as what I call "Shield Control Lineage". Strictly speaking it cannot be said that this is an actual Lineage or magic system but I have seen a few sorts of magic of this sort in a small handful of cannon witches that pertained to the varied use of a witches shield, although it's equally likely that such shield abilities simply belong to a particular lineage like attack lineage and are a system that focuses on the use, control or even on occasion the weaponization of a witches shield in combat. But again wither shield abilities of these sorts are an actual lineage or not or if they belong to a previous or as of yet unknown lineage as a particular system of magic is open to interpretation.

It's rare for a witch to have more than one sort magic belonging to more than one linage or possessing more than one magic for lineage. Hanna Marseille is one such example of something called Deflection Shooting although her ability differs from most examples of deflection shooting; as explained in universe by observers is that while both parties are in the middle of performing complex maneuvers, Hanna sends in bullets at places where there isn't anything and the enemy just comes into her line of fire on its own. It is alleged that her ability is a combination of three different magics - future sight, Three Dimensional Space Understanding and Magic Bullet - but there are no definite conclusions to this. All that can be said is try to avoid overusing and abusing during witch creation as this is a highly uncommon trait to see in witches magic ability and for an OC witch could be considered or at least come off as somewhat overpowered if mishandled.

Another thing of note on a Witches shield is that usually a Witch is able to raise her shield directly in front of her, seeing as for the most part attacks come at a witch from directly in front of her, and is inherently the easiest place to raise a shield. Although it's possible for a witch to raise her shield facing from different directions (at her left or right flank, from behind or even at her feet) such shield control requires specialized, intensive training to become possible since it is not typical of a witch to raise her shield in such ways, and thusly is very difficult to learn and master. Not to mention that in universe many see the raising of a shield from the flanks, back and especially the feet to be rather gimmicky, although admittedly it's a very effective trump card in battle.

An important thing to remember about a witch and her magic is that even though they are very powerful, witches are not unstoppable: they do have their limits. They may be able to push their limits far beyond what any mundane human being is capable of, but a witches magic shield provides protection for a limited time. Witches will burn through their magic and their shields can break. When a witches shield goes down, is bypassed and\or punched through or if she cannot raise that shield in time or in the right direction at a moment's notice then she is extremely vulnerable. While it's good to show the raw power and ability of what a witch can do, be sure to balance it out by showing the limits of a witch. Witches are vital trump cards against the Neuroi but even witches are still human; they have limits to give.

The next item to on the agenda to talk about are the Magical radar (a magic of detection system liniage) and taught magical skills and abilities. Magic spells that are taught are highly rare to see in the Strike Witches world with the currently most used and prominent example being magical radar. We will start with that as our first talking point on such taught magic.

Magical Radar is a military based magic developed and used as a means of detecting Neuroi and as stated before is a tool used by Night Witches. Magical Radar allow a witch to interact with radio waves and is a type of non-visual perception that can detect objects at extreme ranges. Witches even can use a spell to provide guidance cues to other witches and aircraft and are able to tune in and rebroadcast radio transmissions, and overall can explore the combat zone via use of magic. It is a magic spell that is difficult to train in and master, but witches with decent aptitude or pure natural gifts in magical control and a healthy helping of experiences in some cases are able to learn using magical radar and it takes a great deal of time and effort for a witch to master Magical Radar. It's noted and hypothesized that most Night Witches possess two kinds of magic: Magical Radar, which they are taught, and their inherent awakened magic.

Moving onto other trained magic: in the history of the Strike Witches verse there may have been other taught magic's that were used in Strike Witches ancient history: it was stated that humanity and witch-kind had to seal "monsters" and "demons" (read these as "Neuroi") away, indicating that there were spells that used to seal Neuroi away in pocket dimensions, possibly even spells made to trap and ensnare Neruoi to be sealed away. Sealing magic was hinted strongly at existing in the Witches of the Sphinx Doujin when Soldiers and witches, including Major Miles of 4th Armored Brigade, C company, stumbled upon the Anonymous Metropolis (also referred to as the Pyramid with no name): which it was discovered that a magic seal was placed on the Metropolis to seal away Neuroi during the times of ancient Egypt. The seal was accidently broken due to soldiers and witches inadvertently disrupting the grounds and their by breaking the seal that was cast sealing the Neuroi nest and the Neuroi within.

Trained magical spells are likely highly rare to come by in world by the time of the 1940's, and it's possible that some spells like Neuroi sealing and restraint spells have been forgone by this time due to reasons or practicality: it's much more expedient and less dangerous spending time killing a Neuroi then it is trying to seal or capture it, although wither such magic can make a resurgence is another question. Other taught magic's likely follow the same practical details that a witches inherent spells do. Also these would likely be ancient spells of antiquity used for much different reasons in a time period long past into history. It could be possible to see spells that probe the minds of others, spells crafted to provide varying degrees of stealth, or even spells that could allow a witch to become a fully functioning Futanari to help increase a failing or otherwise dwindling population(although I'd recommend to look up the definition of the word Futanari if you are unfamiliar with it: I'd advise you to do so at your own risk, seeing as some people may find it to be... weird). This particular sort of spell might still be seen floating around every now and again, but it wouldn't exactly be found frequently or be kept as common knowledge, likely found only in a few select public and/or private libraries, possibly in the hands of medical academia as well. One thing to keep in mind for such taught magic outside of magical radar is that most of them would be highly unlikely to be found easily, and most would be extremely old spells of antiquity and therefore would be rare and for the most part not be common knowledge outside of one or two. Such spells should have a reasonable, logical use for the time period. Remember not to overuse or abuse the use of taught spells: in cannon it is so far very, very rare to see such spells, and even rarer to see them in action; it's quite possible that the ability to craft such spells is a highly difficult, complicated science that may have either been lost to the sands of time or is knowledge kept by a very low, hard to find percentage of the world's population, and it's also very likely that the only Modern Spell as of yet crafted in recent times would have been the Magical Radar.

Also such spells should have a logical function and reason for existing for the time period they were crafted in (I.E. Ancient times): it would make much more sense in the context of the world that a very old spell allowing two witches to conceive a child would be seen existing and possibly even still seeing use, if being somewhat uncommon to see used in practice; seeing as an ancient spell of this sort would be able to help boost the human population in times of grim and dire scenarios such as during instances involving the black plague (as even healing witches would have their hands full during such a wide sweeping crisis like this), natural disasters that are huge and widespread (such as the eruption of Pompeii amongst others) and during times of large scale, prolonged warfare against the Neuroi (human wars in the Strike Witches universe tend to be rather small and short in scale and timeframe, although some exceptions may exist; further details of such instances will be covered in Chapters 8 and 10.) In comparison an ancient spell allowing for magical contraception to prevent pregnancy would in comparison make little to no sense seeing as in the ancient world most people would be concerned with bearing children rather than preventing the conception of children, not to mention that mundane forms of contraception exist and are much easier to make and get a hold of (although the 1940's style condom isn't exactly cutting edge in this time frame and don't allow for much pleasure for either party involved... I can't stress this enough and matters of such nature will be covered in chapter 10 in greater detail). The creation of such ancient, taught magic's should be seen as extremely uncommon knowledge or as a long lost and forgotten scientific art; and are incredibly difficult to craft and would require some degree of preparation to cast and a healthy amount of skill to use. These are spells that for the most part should be found in ancient tome's that have been lost, forgotten or only recently discovered and difficult to decipher and hard to cast for a mere novice, although to be honest everything regarding ancient taught magic stated above is mere conjecture at this point in time.

Another example of taught magic are ancient combat technique's like the Reppuzan. as described in the Strike Witches Wiki: originally, this technique was something that comes under the telekinesis-lineage. this means that, for non-telekinesis-lineage Witches like Sakamoto, acquiring it and using it would be next to impossible a task that if pursued for such witches could end up causing problems for them. In part, she managed to do so by first mastering Kuroe Ayaka's "Unyou" and then using it as a foothold for her training. A secret sword technique transmitted in Fuso since time immemorial, there is also an acme further above it: "Shin Reppuzan". Taught abilities like this are, much like taught magical spells, very uncommon to come across, and would require a great deal of training to use, in addition to that fact the question of Lineage Compatibility playing a very key factor.

An important thing to always remember is that a witches weapon gets imbued with magic and into their bullets when there weapon is placed in their hands, in addition to the possibility that her magic makes the bullets both more powerful and possibly weakens a Neuroi's thick armor and somewhat disrupts their regenerative abilities, seeing as being hit by mundane weapons has little effect but being shot at by witches and their weapons seems to do more damage. Wither this is confirmed as true or not in cannon remains to be seen, but if anything a mundane weapon in the hand of a witch becomes far more powerful then it were in the hands of a mundane soldier, seeing as witches have an easier time fighting and defeating Neuroi then mundane troops and vehicles do. A witches power seems to have great effect on destroying Neuroi then un-augmented mundane arms so be sure your stories involving Strike Witches reflect this.

Another aspect of magic is that it can be imbued into weapons, objects and equipment to provide special property's, It can be imbued into a weapon durring the crafting stage to be made more powerful then normal, it can be imbued into helmets and armor for better protection for a witch, It's rumored that Fuso Witches wearing Miko style shrine maiden clothing have fiber that are magical treated to boost a witches magical power by about 5% (although such cloths are likely used by very rich family's or the families of Fuso royalty or the members of Samurai family's). Imbuing magic into objects and weapons require a great deal of time and effort to provide unique magical properties, and is something that is infrequently done by most, although people who are dedicated weapons and armor smiths and those responsible for making particular equipment and imbuing magic into woven fabrics for cloths and even possibly magically treating the components of Strikers are within the realm of possibility of a Strike Witches fan writer, simply be aware of the time, effort, resources and logistics involved in these things should you decide to explore these elements.

Keep in mind that the above specific magic's pertaining to witches inherent magic abilities and the lineage they fall under are simply examples that can be used as guidelines to creating magic spells and abilities for witch characters, but demonstrate that while yes the SW world has magic it isn't the sort of epic, high fantasy type magical abilities or magic that is seen in other, more common Magical Girl Anime. Strike Witches magic is more of a science based, logical magic, which is something that can be felt when SW is paired up side by side other magical girl Anime. Be sure to keep this all in mind when writing a Strike Witches Fanfic; it will help you greatly when it comes to finally show what your witches can do when mere arms of men aren't enough and a witch decides to call forth her magical power into the field of battle.

Remember, in Strike Witches: Magic is a science. It has to be viewed, handled and approached as such when you write a Strike Witches fic. Be sure to keep these abilities reasonable, grounded and practical for your girls. But while working within this particular set of guideline: be as creative as you can and see what sort of inherent witch abilities you can make. If you need help for inspiration in witches magic, you can look at source official material, read up on the 78th Tame Witches Himegoes, blazes's story involving his OC witch unit in "Iron Within" or even looking up bookmarkahead's witch unit the 522d Citadel Witches on deviant art so as to get a feel for a witches magical abilities. What powers lie within the very being of your witch?


	6. Chapter 6 Striker Technology

Chapter 6: Striker Technology

By far the most integral and iconic parts of the Strike Witches Series and it's verse that make it readily identifiable, unique, avant-garde and special as an Anime and as a series: is the Striker Unit. Being the most well known flagship of the Mecha Musume genre, Strike Witches best encapsulates the perfectly blended union of Human and Machine, and the Striker Unit makes the series recognizable and is one of the reasons for it's popularity, amongst other elements. However, many casual fans and newcomers seem to have many questions surrounding the Striker Unit: primarily regaurding it's function, how it works and other questions involving it's history and operation. In this chapter we will be covering everything from the mechanics of strikers, to the history of strikers, and the types and behaviors of Striker Units. Do note that this chapter will be quite extensive and comprehensive in detail.

The Striker Unit is a complex, intricate piece of magical technology steeped in a surprisingly long history. The first Striker Units were created during the turn of the 18th century and utilized primarily a steam powered magic engine, specifically during the year of 1765: in which the Magic Power Revolution began and the Striker Unit's birth being attributed to a Britannian Witch named Jeremy Watt who discovered a technique to amplify magic power with a steam engine. These inventions helped to pave way for more innovations such as the introduction of the Striker Units in the 20th century. (As a quick note this is a shout out to the Scottish inventor James Watt, the creator of the Steam Engine during the industrial revolution) it can be assumed that initially they were of ingenious design but may have still had flaws and limitations and efficiency problems.

By 1914 the development of backpack based strikers were developed and had seen use either half way through or during the last legs of the 1st Neuroi war or sometime after the war during the inter-war period. These particular units are powered by an extra backpack which reduces space that a which can better use to carry equipment, munitions and otherwise makes things difficult in terms of carrying capacity due to the lack of room, probably affected flight and were mostly based on interwar period fighters and had a much lower top speed then 1930's strikers. However, they were sometimes more agile than the new Striker Units due to their lightweight nature. Any witch that had been fighting and flying before the Second Neuroi War had probably used this model. However a major design flaw was that if the backpack was damaged, destroyed or malfunctioned it would affect the whole striker system and could result in a witch in the sky falling to the ground bellow, or if there were Land based Infantry strikers a witch would be reduced to half of her effectiveness in battle since the overall unit would be useless.

By the mid 1930's (specifically 1936) Joint development of Striker Units begins in Britannia and Ichiro Miyafuji was as a result called to Europe. During this time development into Combustion Engine based Striker Units utilizing the Miyafuji theory have begun development with the prototypes of new model Strikers that adopt the Miyafuji Theory being completed in many countries. In 1938: for many nations, the mass-production of Striker Units that adopt the Miyafuji Theory have gotten up and running by that point. The year of 1939 heralds the official start of the 2nd Neuroi War (even though some skirmishes occur through-out the 1930s, with 1937 being the year which humanity sees the famous "Fuso Sea Incident" take place.)

Surprisingly, after doing some research into the subject, Backpacked Strikers could allow a witch to maintain her magic well into her twenties, possibly even beyond. However, apparently the reason for a witches magic failing as it does in the anime during the 1940's Strikers operating under the Miyafuji Theory appear to drain magic faster than the older backpack units and their by shorten and lower the magical viability of most witches, which could very well explain how witches like Mio lose their powers to varying degrees: the early prototypes also had a flaw that carried into the first production Striker Units of using a great amount of magical energy. Many witches burned out their entire lifetime of magical power during the development phase of such trials.

With the history of the striker complete we will now look at the Striker Unit itself. A Striker Unit is pair of hybrid mechanical/magical devices used by Witches for flight and fighting and worn over their legs, while aerial based strikers are rigid and prevent movement of the knees for the sake of maintaining aerodynamics, they can be disengaged in the field if needed. There are officially two types of striker units: Air Infantry Combat Legs (Utilized by what is known as Mechanized Air Infantry witches) and Land Battle Tracked Legs (Utilized by what is known as Land Battle Witches or "Tank Witches"), although semi-officially Shimada has also depicted Navel based striker units in his works, but for this chapter we will only focus on Air Infantry and Land Battle Striker Units seeing as they feature the most prominence in the source material.

A Striker Unit consists of several intricate parts: the Magic Engine, the combustion engine, a magical controller and amplifier, a generator, and intake manifold (for air infantry strikers), as well as the body, and various other components. Air infantry based strikers also poses a "leg bracing module " at the top of the striker what helps prevent a witches knee from bending in order to preserve aerodynamic flight, although this module can be taken apart in the field so a witch can kneel and easily disengage her striker out in the field. Some strikers may also poses a simple landing gear consisting of ether a fixed or retractable wheel on each leg of the unit for landings. Aerial based strikers (in particular ether jet strikers ) may also have an emergency release cable added to the unit in case the strike fly's out of control and is engaged in case of emergencies for quickly detaching a witch from an out of control striker unit. All Strikers also poses a magic limiter that makes the magic and combustion engines cut out in order to prevent overloading and damaging the striker unit or in some cases prevent a prototype striker from draining too much of a witches magic and potentially putting the health and safety of a witch at unnecessary, undo risk. The generators of strikers are where the propellers of air infantry strikers is manifested. Although it's not exactly confirmed how solid magically manifested propellers are, it can only be assumed that if someone came too close to the magic propellers spinning blades it would be the same if you would walk into the blades of a full-sized aircraft... in other words: it would get very messy, very fast.

Striker Units utilize a pocket dimension that houses a witches legs, allowing the witch to wear the striker unit in what many would rightly assume to be a device jam-packed with mechanical parts. Due to the nature of the striker unit's pocket dimension technology when a striker is destroyed anywhere below the knee of the witch the leg of the witch doesn't get lost. However it is possible for a witch to lose her leg from injury at or above the knee or after the destruction of the striker unit that had once held her leg. Strikers require direct skin contact to wear, and witches have to contend with very short notice and increasingly erratic times of engagement from the enemy with requires the witches to sortie at a moment's notice; this explains why most active duty witches must forgo the use of pants, long legged shorts and long skirts; such clothing would get in the way of either interfacing with, manoeuvring with or simply flying efficiently with such clothes. The only things a witch could conceivably wear as bottom wear for both skin contact, ease of movement and aerodynamics are panties, pantyhose, extremely short shorts, miniskirts, and for witches of Fuso Miko Outfits and a type of form fitting arm and leg armor known as Witch Combat Bracers (bracers are often worn by Fuso Army Witches).

Striker Units not only run on a witches magic, they also boost the power of a witches magic and her shields, as well as boosting her physical abilities providing greater power and protection then if a witch were without her Striker. Air Infantry Strikers are often referred to as "the modern day witches broom" and Tracked Legs as "The Modern Magic Wand" hyperbolically. While there are many different types of striker units with each one possessing its own quirks, strengths and weaknesses, they fulfill the same basic function: to boost a witches magical powers. All striker units reflect traits respective of the aircraft or vehicle they are patterned off of. The Mechanized Air Infantry Combat Leg, better known as the Air Infantry Striker, is a unit designed to provide witches the ability to fly and engage enemy aerial units in combat or attacking ground targets from the sky, using speed, manoeuvrability and a great deal of well trained aerobatics. Air Infantry have garnered great fame thanks to propaganda films that were made in Fuso, and various aces of air combat further adding to the fame of Mechanized Air Infantry. However, it was the Air Infantry Combat Leg that helped push humanities witches through the skies.

Scientists, researchers and striker mechanics and manufacturers are constantly seeking to study and improve upon existing striker designs that utilize the Miyafuji Theory. There are a handful of striker manufacturing companies worldwide working together with Military R&D as well as professors in magical science to help in development of Strikers. It is somewhat common practice for military witches assigned to units tasked with performing trials or seeking help from witch aces to test new Striker Designs. The construction and maintenance of Striker Units is a very intricate and meticulous process, requiring a certain familiarity in their construction. While striker units may look the same, peeling back the metal casing will reveal that each striker has different mechanical guts on the inside. A mechanic or witch who has mechanical skills and inclinations who knows how to maintain, tune or modify a Spitfire wouldn't necessarily know how to do the same for a Mustang or a Focke Wulf unless they went out of their way to learn, or if it was a unit that was on lend-leased in bulk and was as common for them to maintain as a striker from their homeland.

Air Infantry Strikers often fill different roles: most are standard fighters like the P-51, Ultramarine Spitfire, Yak-3, and Various other aircraft that were ideal for a variety of dog fighting roles, although each and every Striker handled and performed differently between each nations aircraft, even handling and performance being different comparing older model machines with newer models. For strengths some had higher turning radius, others had better weapons stability, some having better climb and acceleration, some having slightly stronger shields for their class, others having good recovery, and the flaws were also varied between each machine depending on the craft in question.

There were heavy fighter class Air Infantry Strikers like the Messercharff Bf110C/D and others that had , at least compared to other air infantry striker units; very strong shields, better carrying capacity and longer range and somewhat higher altitudes compared to most strikers, but sacrificed top speed and manuverabvility and combustion engine acceleration. Frequently such strikers were used for long ranged night patrols, long range day/night bombing or for massive, large scale engagements against a multitude of enemies. As a result of this machines more desirable traits, quite a few Night Witches equip such striker units.

Ground Attack Strikers such as the Stuka, P-47, Ilyushin Il-2 and Curtiss SB2C Helldiver were strikers best suited for fast attacks against ground targets as well as bombing runs and dive bomb attacks against land based Neuroi and ground targets, possessing superior assent and descent, good acceleration and are well balanced mechanically for the role of carrying bombs although shields were likely weaker than most. Also due to the nature of the missions, quite a few Witches using Ground Attack Strikers, the Stuka in particular, unsurprisingly found themselves making crash landings in the field, causing considerable, various injury for the witches in question. However, depending on the craft, Ground attack strikers had speeds, maneuverability and varied speed. Armament however was problematic however becasue for bombing runs more often then not witches had to carry bomb in their bear hands or by means of a device specifically designed for witches to carry and deploy bombs: much like the one used by Giuseppina Cenni. Because of this need to carry bombs by hand: witches are hard pressed to carry the weight of a firearm and assorted ammo into battle due to encumbrance.

Light Air Unit Strikers like the L-3 "Grasshopper", Fieseler Fi 156 Storch, Taylorcraft Auster and others of this class are often utilized as aerial scouts, pathfinders, short range aerial patrols, observation, and Liaison roles as well as training recruit witches in the military. Due to their nature they are also adapt at filling out roles related to providing some air medical witches with a light, slightly quick, nimble unit in the field. Although they would likely have very light shields in comparison to other units and wouldn't be mechanically ideal for direct-head-to-head dog fighting or any sort of medium or heavy combat engagements.

Ether jet strikers are the next generation of aerial striker technology developed during the 1940's. Examples would include the Meteor and the Me262. The jet striker was a new piece of striker technology first developed by researchers in Karlsland, wither or not Brittania and Liberion had their own, smaller, limited, underfunded programs into ether jet research wither by the start of or half way through the Second Neuroi war is up to speculation and interpretation. Ether jet based strikers are faster than any prop-driven striker unit, very maneuverable, have a higher operational combat ceiling and due to the magical output have and the possibility for allowing for greater carrying capacity. However, only witches with strong magical capabilities as well as support from their familiar can safely use them, since witches that aren't compatible with the striker would be unable to use the ether jet striker either effectively or safely, if even at all. Because the ether jet engine is as of now unrefined and using the current version of the Miyafuji theory that likely not account for the nature of a magical jet engine, the use of an ether jet striker like the Me262 would quickly drain a witch of her magical reserves much faster than a normal striker unit would, which would leave the witch vulnerable to blacking out and either crashing or leave a still flying, out of control unit draining her stamina and magic completely to the point of causing serious injury and even death. Unless the witch is of exceptional magical power and potential or until ether jet technology is refined then the unit is limited to testing, experimenting and short combat trials; at this point of the Second Neuroi War it extremely rare to being unheard of to see an individual witch fielding the ether jet striker in active service, much less a Joint Fighter Wing being equipped with them.

Whereas Mechanized air infantry fight in the skies, Land Battle witches fight upon the ground bellow. As most of the magical output for Air Infantry Striker Units is directed towards flight, they are by design possessing weaker shields, weapon stopping power and relatively short operational times comparatively speaking to Land Battle Tracked Legs; with their magic output directed towards weapons, shields and boosting a witches physical abilities, Land Battle Witches (also informally known as "Tank Witches) posses much greater power in these area's compared to Mechanized air infantry units. The strength of their shields, and the firepower of their main cannons, are far beyond those of air infantry witches, and their operation times are also longer. In other words, flight magic consumes an enormous amount of magic power, which is used in other ways by land combat Strike Witches. While it varies between units, the standard top speed of Land Battle Strikers in the field is around 30 km/h. For traveling long distances, trains and railroads are normally used.

There are two modes of operation for Tracked Combat Legs: bipedal and tracked modes. Regularly, Witches walk with the "feet" part of the Striker, including when engaging in combat. However, when in need of faster speed, they can also utilize the tracks equipped on the Striker Units to attain said maximum speed. These tracks can be exposed by retracting the "feet" part of the Striker Units, and engaging this tracked mode for movement is referred to as "Track Dashing". Track dashing allows for greater movement speed and agility in combat, although it can draw on a bit of magical output to utilize.

In the early days of development, Tracked combat Legs were mostly used for hauling large calibre cannons and anti-tank guns, for personal protection the witches just carried regular infantry small arms. Later when it was possible to release more physical strength, it became popular to equip Land Combat Witches with their own main armament. Such armaments are called "Witch Combat Guns": Specialized cannon-like weapons firing a specially designed, large caliber shell that could be used to damage and destroy Neuroi. Witch Combat Gun's utilize what is known as "Magic Mass" (abbreviated as "mm") and is an abstract unit of measurement used to indicate the amount of magical energy that is being channelled into the round inside the Witch Combat Gun. For example a 37mm Witch Combat Gun means that the witch combat gun in question is able to output 37 units of magic mass per round. 75mm means that the weapon in question can output a solid 75 units of magic mass, which is quite powerful. Some Strikers like the Britannian Firefly and the Liberion "Easy 8" are fielded with weapons called "Anti-Neuroi Rifles" and other Strikers are issued "Anti-Neuroi guns", and at times the largest of witch combat guns usually at 75mm or higher are referred to as "Witch Combat Cannons". Large caliber Witch combat guns like the 75mm and higher have large recoil and not only would such large and heavy hitting weapons usually require two hands to use but also must be rested upon the knee of the striker while firing for stability, or on occasion be mounted on the leg of a striker unit depending on the type of striker. Some strikers have even been modified to serve as "Gunner" strikers: basically a striker unit possessing a weapon mount to equip a heavy machinegun like the M2 Browning to provide a land battle unit with automatic suppressive fire, although it's more common to see witches using their standard issue witch combat guns.

For the most part, as far all the military is concerned, Tank witches are often seen as the "unsung heroes" and "grunts" of witch kind: whereas many Mechanized Air Infantry witches are well renowned and very famous to the point of being hailed as war celebrities, if not on an ace level then simply by image and military role; Land Battle Witches meanwhile lead a less glamorous life. With the exception of perhaps the well known and well hailed Britannian Royal Army, 4th Armoured Brigade, C Squadron under the command of Major Miles in Africa (as far at least for Tank witch units are concerned), as well as witches that Operate the Tiger heavy tracked combat legs and the Patton girls of the Liberion Army's II Corps; most of the girls of the various nations Tank witches and their units get slightly less time in the spot light compared to that of Mechanized Air Infantry, and because of this most units have to contend with less enlistment, recruitment and volunteer rates as a result and many Tank witch unit commanders are desperate to try and get press coverage in order to raise the ranks of Land Battle Witches in the field and to fill roles in Tank witch units. The reason for this can be found in the Propaganda film: "Flash in the Fuso Sea", which was responsible for glorifying the glorious aerial witches in the military, resulting in many young magical girls volunteering to serve primarily in mechanized air infantry. Land Battle witches therefore have to contend with lower recruitment rates in comparison. Despite not being quite as popular world wide as Air Infantry witches, Land Battle witches still never the less fill a much needed role in combat and help reinforce the land units and manage to take and hold ground while fighting vigorously with valor against the toughest land based combat forms of the Neuroi admirably, and at least amongst quite a number of infantry units, artillery units and supply units the Land Battle Witches are seen and celebrated as the heroines of the land; more often than not the girls are greeted warmly by the men they serve alongside.

Much like Air Infantry Striker Units, Tracked Combat legs (sometimes also called Armoured Legs) are very diverse, and also posses their own unique, strengths, weaknesses, traits and quirks, as do witch combat guns being as varied and numerous as the Striker Units they come with as standard issue. While there are undoubtedly many kinds of striker units patterned after different light tanks, medium tanks, heavy tanks, self-propelled guns, and self propelled artillery that undoubtedly had their own unique traits and quirks, in this chapter we will be covering five in detail that have historical and technical information that can be found in the 5th Volume of the Witches of the Sphinx doujinshi. Heavy Tracked Combat Legs are by far the most rare Strikers to see on the field due to the insane amount of resources and funding required to manufacture such units as well as witches needing to be magically compatible to field such a unit, not to mention the logistics requires to maintain, equip, supply and field such a unit. Heavy Track Combat Legs more often then not use an actual tank cannon as their primary armament: The Tiger I of course wields the powerful 8.8 that was used on the actual tank of the same name and had become mounted upon the Tiger I Striker's massive chassis, augmenting it with magic.

To start off: the Liberion M3 Lee and M4 Shermen Land Strikers benefited from mechanical reliability, operational availability, ease of maintenance, and high production numbers. On top of that they were designed to sacrifice themselves in the event that a Neuroi's attack exceeded the defensive abilities of a witch, sparing the life of a witch that operated the unit in question. This ability of the Sherman derived strikers was referred to as the Lonsan Effect, based on the famous manufacturer of safety matches and oil lighters. It was not unheard of to see Liberion witches uniforms, due to the nature of the Lonsan Effect, burning and disintegrating and for the witches to be casually fighting half naked with their uniforms in tatters, which won the admiration of the mundane soldiers. Many nations often bought M3's and M4's from Liberion or they were given under a "lend/lease" contract for their army witches. Sherman derived strikers tend to have fall under a variety of configurations that filled different roles and performed differently from other Sherman's.

Meanwhile the Panzer Mark IV possessed balanced mobility, and an offensive/defensive capability. This allowed for striker unit model diversity and allowed witches to experiment with the unit in combat. This provided Karlslands Panzerfräulein with flexibility and adaptability and allowed for individual witches to exploit their magical ability's to their full potential. Although their short barrelled standard issue guns had reduced range, they had incredible penetrative power, allowing for witches fielding the Mark IV to destroy Neuroi that possessed exceptionally thick armor, and as such witches piloting such strikers were fielded as trump-cards in combat, and as a result this unit was reserved for elite land battle witches. This could be fixed with a larger caliber witch combat gun that was eventually designed and fielded, which helped provide somewhat better range and slightly better stopping power.

Land Battle Witches of Imperial Fuso were known to always face difficulty on the battlefield, what with the Type 89 I-go Tracked Legs possessing a number of problems due to poor mobility and had a propriety of breaking down frequently and possessing feeble protection, was derided and ridiculed as the "Ox Cart Rider". Land battle witch combat improved for Fuso with the advent conception of the Type 97 Chi-ha Tracked Legs. While hardly considered ideal for Medium Tracked Leg Striker Units, they did boast phenomenally greater mobility and range then the Type 89, contributing to the Imperial Army Nadeshiko witch units. As fighting continued the Type 97 magic engines were adjusted to enhance defensive capabilities of a witches shield and of the Type 87 underwent extensive modification.

The Type 97 Witch combat Gun was deigned to defeat Neuroi by means of firing high explosive shells that inflict blast damage. However, the already existing shells were replaced with new, experimental armor piercing shells once it became clear that the previous shells were ineffective against more heavily armored Neuroi units, although other types of weapons that were considered effective were also employed. The Type 97 Chi-ha was hailed as a versatile, easy to maintain unit with a long combat range that allowed land battle witches of Fuso to tailor their weapon load outs to their comfort and personal preference, although this would prove to be a logistical nightmare for the chain of command to keep Chi-ha witches ammo and maintenance parts well supplied due to a complete lack of standardization in this regard.

The Matilda II strikers of Britannia are reliable units possessing powerful defensive shields and armaments that boasted high penetration capability: making it an unparalleled witch weapon credited to saving the lives of many soldiers. Matilda's were well known for greatly amplifying shield strength of a witch. It was however a heavy unit with low mobility, and only Land Battle witches like Major Miles; who knew well the strengths and weaknesses of the Matilda II and trained rigorously with the unit could turn the "Heavy Iron Dress" in the "Corvette of the Dunes". An adopted tactic of the Matilda II equipped Land Battle Witches that proved to be quite adapt smoke screen based close quarters combat style fighting that utilized special smoke screens that drastically reduced the effectiveness of Neuroi long ranged attacks thanks to specialized shells. This tactic proved to be very effective thanks to the smoke shells and close team work and deep mutual trust between members of a witches unit. While difficult to categorize as "ideal" they were still a highly prized unit regardless, being a unit that Britannia was able to supply in bulk from the outset of the North African Campaign, although they were also seen on many other fronts, and are counted among the few tracked legs to be employed on every battlefield where land battle witches fought.

Then of course their was the famously known "undefeated striker of legend": the Mark VI Extra Heavy Tracked Fighting Legs; otherwise known as the "Tiger". A decisive weapon developed by Karlsland out of a desire to retake their homeland, the Tiger was the most powerful striker unit in existence in 1943. It's accomplishments and fame reach mythic proportions, and as a result the moral of the troops would dramatically improve; the presence of a Tiger gave even regular soldiers the confidence to feel like they could defeat Neuroi all by themselves. While the Tiger had suffered from issues related to production difficulties, strenuous maintenance demands and relatively limited range, they were outweighed by the Tigers unparalleled offensive and defensive abilities; possessing incredibly powerful weapons and magic shields. Depending on the situation and the skill of the witch riding it, the Tiger could take on hordes of Neuroi and win, making it a truly legendary land battle striker. That said production of Tigers was laborious and regular maintenance was vital to keeping them operational. In addition logistical considerations were required for their use; such as a ready supply of spare parts and other expendables, and being accompanied by a dedicated maintenance team.

That being said, an appropriately maintained Tiger boasted surprising mobility and fairly high reliability. A news correspondent who covered the daily operations of a Tiger unit in action wrote a children's book titled "Tigerfibel", which explained the operations of the Tiger Striker in terms that were easy to understand, eventually becoming a best seller that helped perpetuate the Tiger's legend of invincibility. Records tell of Fuso officers who were so impressed by the awesome power ot the Tiger that one or two Tiger Strikers were purchased by the Imperial Fuso Army for technological experimentation purposes. While their were some accounts of Fuso witches using Tiger Strikers with Fuso ideograms, such details are sketchy regarding this.

Tiger units requires large quantities of magical energy and not all land battle witches were capable of operating them. Witches and their units often have to go through compatibility tests to ensure they were assigned a striker that best complimented the witches abilities, magical proficiency and overall performance. Their have been cases where a witch suffered mediocre performance with a standard land battle striker, while exhibiting different abilities when using a Tiger, or vise versa. Tiger equipped witches can inflict devastating damage on targets from medium to long range, but at close range the main 88mm armament of the Tiger unit was cumbersome. For this reason the tiger was armed with a coaxial MG34, but what was most effective was to conduct joint missions with the Tiger paired with regular infantry or witches in light or medium fighting tracked legs.

The Tiger tracked legs won great fame on the North African, Eastern and Western fronts, giving birth to many land battle ace witches. Their have been reports of rather peculiar field-modified Tigers achieving great success on the Gothic Line; the defense line that was part of the Romangna Campaign. The Tiger Striker Unit directed their might against the Neuroi and fought ferociously to the very end of the 2nd Neuroi war.

Another striker of honorable mention is the Sturmpanzerbeine III Ausf. G (literally assault tank legs) utilized by Aurora E. Juutilainen, which comes with a powerful 75mm Witch combat Cannon as primary armament. Each Striker reflects the traits of the machine it's based off of, so be sure to do as much research as possible into the aircraft or vehicles and try and translate that into the Striker unit. Although it's been mentioned already: always be sure to do research. When it comes to Striker Units this is by far one of _the most_ _vital_ _things _you can do as a writer of Strike Witches fan fiction. Whenever a trait is found in a vehicle to make into a striker you which to assign to a witch, be sure to translate that strength or weakness into the striker . Also of importance is be sure to try and match the striker as best as you can with the witch so the unit can play to the witches strengths while mitigating weaknesses. Or alternatively you can choose to show a witch that is equipped with a striker she might not necessarily be ideal operation in the field for one reason or another (although usually the reasons would likely be either due to poor logistics, because of being intimately familiar and comfortable with an older unit, being unfamiliar with a new unit and/or adjusting to the new units teething troubles and the witches inexperience or simply being not magically compatible with the unit in question which leads us back to the logistics scenario).

In strike witches research is the mantra of the day in all things and is the most important and vital thing a Strike Witches fan writer can do; but it is beyond essential when it comes to the design, assignment and depiction of striker units. Aviation aerobatics used by Air Infantry witches are reminiscent of actual WW2 aerial dog fighting maneuvers. Land Battle Witches similarly use tank tactics that were also used during the time period. While there would be little objection to the creation and depiction of Navel Based Striker units, they are at best Semi-Cannon in nature and would be rather uncommon, if not rare: due to the fact that for the most part Neuroi are notorious for not liking water very much. But if you do decide on the creation of witches using Sea based strikers be sure to keep in mind the guidelines above when it comes to their creation. Again: "Always do Research" is the mantra to adopt in Strike Witches stories; and it is most important of all when it comes to the witches most important equipment in the battle against the Neuroi.

Wither in the sky or across the land: the Striker is the withes most vital tool beside her weapon and her magic. They are what help give the series its identity, and are by far the most amazing, fascinating and well research pieces of magical technology ever seen in an anime, doujin or light novel.

When the order comes to sortie, the roar of a strikers magic engine will be sure to bring excitement to the reader, and signal the start of intense battles against humanities greatest foe... whom we will look at in the next chapter...


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